Part of our CINEMA IN THE TIME OF CORONAVIRUS series. Saturday, May 30, 2020 @ 8p, Netflix Streaming Service: UNCUT GEMS (2019 , Netflix, dir by the Safdie Brothers, streaming, 102mns)
HOW TO: While we all work to be socially responsible during the age of coronavirus, Secret Movie Club is experimenting with news ways we can all come together as a community and watch great movies.
We want to keep this very reasonable since folks have to have Netflix to start with. So we're asking for $1, $2, $3, $4, and $5 dollar tickets to get the link. Whatever you want to contribute.
Just make sure you download NETFLIX PARTY on a Chrome Browser. You'll see the initials NP in the upper right hand corner of browser after a succesful download.
Secret Movie Club will email the link for the Netflix Party at 30 minutes before showtime using the email you provide here. Click that link then click the NP in upper right hand corner. This will synch you to our screening. We will start the movie at exactly 5 minutes after the hour.
There will be a chat function that allows everyone to comment as we go.
The Secret Movie Club team will be offering trivia, history, insights, articles, deep dives throughout the movie(s). We're going to work to make this as rich a feast as possible utilizing the technology at hand.
Then we'll want your feedback immediately on how we can improve/make it better! This also will allow Secret Movie Clubbers from all over the world to join in on a virtual screening!
This week, we wanted to take a look at one of 2019’s most talked about movies that paradoxically got no nominations for the Oscars.
Although Bong Joon Ho’s deserving PARASITE eventually went on to win Best Picture, the 2019/2020 Oscars illustrated again a growing divide between the movies that really excited filmmakers/movielovers and the movies nominated by the Academy.
The Safdie Brothers Uncut Gems starring Adam Sandler looked like a shoe-in for at least a best actor nomination for Sandler. But it’s possible many folks didn’t realize how the Safdie Brothers’ aggressively provocative look at one week in the life of Howie, a womanizing, addicted to gambling, jewelry store owning, Jewish hustler, would rub Jewish members of the Academy the wrong way.
The movie practically dares sensitive audience members to bail on it with its unsentimental, jangly, constantly explosive look at Jewish-black relations, Jewish family relations, and self-destructiveness.
The movie tells the story of Howie’s most heart pounding week as he finally comes into possession of a very special jewel encrusted stone he plans to sell at auction for millions. When he gives it to Celtics star basketball player Kevin Garnett for good luck for a few days, a series of chain events happen that make Howie’s life practically unloveable. But Howie has brought it on himself with his inability to stop gambling, philandering, partying, self-destructing.
The Safdie Brothers really hit the big time here after a series of incredibly respected, equally nerve jangling indie movies. And Sandler has never been better, fully inhabiting the character with both humanity and flaws (maybe the two are the same thing).
Join us for one of 2019’s most talked about movies that seemed to alienate the gatekeepers of the movie industry. What they might have missed but moviemakers picked up on was that the Safdie Brothers (Jewish themselves) were making a movie about the flawed yet very human characters they know just like Martin Scorsese has been doing for four decades with Italian-Americans.
Best always,
Craig Hammill