A highly acclaimed dark comedy starring Adam Sandler will be removed from HBO Max very soon. The R-rated film follows a New York jeweler whose gambling addiction and risky decisions put his life in danger.
Uncut Gems to leave HBO Max after this month
Uncut Gems will depart from HBO Max’s streaming library on Monday, June 1.
Josh Safdie and Benny Safdie helmed and co-wrote the film with Ronald Bronstein. The Safdie brothers based the film on the stories they heard from their father, who worked as a diamond salesman. “Our dad, who was a runner and a salesman who worked for an eccentric guy who was trying to constantly earn his place. They were mini-pulp stories, and absurdly funny,” Josh shared (via Deadline).
Uncut Gems centers on Howard Ratner, a jeweler in New York who is addicted to gambling and deeply in debt. Nonetheless, he buys a rare Ethiopian black opal and believes it will make him rich. In hopes of clearing his debts, he keeps making risky bets and bad decisions, which makes things worse. As a result, he faces threats from the dangerous people he borrowed money from, while his personal life is on the verge of collapse.
The film’s cast features Adam Sandler as Howard, LaKeith Stanfield as Demany, Julia Fox as Julia De Fiore, Idina Menzel as Dinah, and Eric Bogosian as Arno, among others. It also includes a cameo from former NBA star Kevin Garnett, who plays a fictionalized version of himself.
Uncut Gems premiered at the 2019 Telluride Film Festival on August 30. It later arrived in theaters in the United States on December 13, 2019, and opened to overwhelming critical acclaim.
Consequently, it boasts an impressive 91% approval rating from 351 critics on Rotten Tomatoes. However, the general moviegoer didn’t share the same opinion, resulting in an average score of 52%. However, on IMDb, the film has a rating of 7.4 out of 10 from more than 350K users.
At the box office, the film grossed approximately $50 million domestically against a reported $19 million budget. The film never received an international theatrical release because Netflix acquired the rights to distribute it through its platform.
Originally reported by Harsha Panduranga on ComingSoon.
