Uncut Gems (2019)

Adam Sandler's Howard keeps trying to talk his next disaster into becoming an opportunity. The unstable rhythm between charm, evasion and mounting panic is why his absence from the 2020 Actor in a Leading Role nominations still invites argument. Joaquin Phoenix won that year for Joker. Sandler's case does not depend on being a comedian doing serious work; it depends on how precisely he makes this exhausting gambling jeweller both infuriating and impossible to stop watching.