Diamond District jeweler and gambling addict Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler) is desperately trying to get a rare black opal back from famous basketball player Kevin Garnett.

The movie that brought mainstream attention to the Safdie brothers was helped by a Netflix collaboration and Sandler’s finest performance to date. He’s perfect as a man working under unbelievable pressure in constantly hostile and fragile environs where fortunes are quickly made and lost with no securities. This is a movie bound to raise your blood pressure, sometimes in a way that’s just stressful rather than genuinely exciting.

Well acted, atypical but good electronic score and rough New York locations.

2019-U.S. 135 min. Color. Widescreen. Directed by Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie. Screenplay: Ronald Bronstein, Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie. Music: Daniel Lopatin. Cinematography: Darius Khondji. Editing: Ronald Bronstein, Benny Safdie. Cast: Adam Sandler (Howard Ratner), LaKeith Stanfield (Demany), Julia Fox (Julia De Fiore), Kevin Garnett, Idina Menzel, Eric Bogosian, Judd Hirsch, The Weeknd. Voices of Natasha Lyonne, Tilda Swinton.

Trivia: Co-executive produced by Martin Scorsese. Sacha Baron Cohen and Harvey Keitel were considered for the lead role.

Last word: “We had a script that was over 160 pages. Howard’s a motormouth! He’s a loudmouth. He has a lot of dialogue. A lot of extended monologues that are constantly interrupted. That is difficult for an actor. Because from a technical standpoint, you have to memorize a lot of monologues with crazy tonal shifts. But [Sandler] wasn’t fazed by that part at all. The movie benefited from ‘100% Fresh’, that 50-city tour he did. He was used to going on stage with three and a half hours of material and shaping and modifying it in the moment, if the crowd’s not into it. The things that were more challenging for him, I think, were the hot and cold elements. And the fact that it was through the lens of realism.” (Benny Safdie, AV Club)