In December 2019, A24 unleashed a terror attack from a crime thriller, uncut gems, from the up-and-coming directorial duo of Josh and Benny Safdie. The release of the film erupted Safdie Brothers from the streets of the New York indie scene to movie stardom, with Benny living their newfound fame in acting roles in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza (2021), the Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022), and the upcoming Christopher Nolan biopic Oppenheimer (2023).
The Safdie Brothers’ ruthless cinéma vérité approach Uncut Gemstones she won praise from critics and moviegoers. In one sold out showing of gemstones in the Seattle area, the auditorium light came on accidentally twenty minutes early. But the audience sat in absolute silence until the credits rolled, too mesmerized by the film to alert the cinema staff. One element crucial to the film’s ability to literally paralyze moviegoers in their seats was the Safdies’ collaboration with the film’s star.
Uncut Gemstones contained a power plant version of Adam Sandler as “Howard Rattner” (aka “Howie Bling”), a New York City Jewish jeweler in a downward spiral of gambling addiction even more horrific than Harvey Keitel’s character in Abel Ferrara’s 1992 film, bad lieutenant (which was an influence on The Safdies). Critics regarded Rattner’s role as the finest of Sandler’s career; although his starring role as Barry Egan in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2002 film Punch-drunk love is a serious runner-up (and another influence on The Brothers).
Adam Sandler Returns for the Safdie Brothers’ Next Movie
Despite all the buzz surrounding his performance, Sandler was not nominated for a Best Actor Oscar, one of the Academy’s most blatant snubs in recent years. But if recent developments are any indication, it looks like “Sandman” (as the Safdies and others call him) may still have a shot at Oscar gold. Earlier this year, Sandler confirmed that: EW that he planned to reunite with the Safdie Brothers on their next film, saying:
“[The Safdie Brothers and I] talk about it constantly, man. I love these guys, I love them. I mean, they’re incredible filmmakers… Of course I’d die working with them again because it’s a brand new feeling.”
Last week, Sandler confirmed to Vanity Fair during an interview on the Little golden men podcast that this sequel to Uncut Gemstones will begin shooting late winter 2023. However, Sandler stopped releasing plot details. So far, the Brothers have also been zipped, allowing fans of Uncut Gemstones to anxiously await the upcoming announcements, speculating, “What kind of movie are Sandler and the Safdie Brothers going to make next?”
After the release of Good Will Hunting (1997) director Gus Van Sant faced a moment of anticipation similar to that faced by the Safdies now. In 1997, the movie world was its oyster, and the press wanted to know, “What kind of movie is Gus Van Sant going to make next?” They quickly had their answer: Gus Van Sant wanted to make a shot-for-shot remake of Alfred Hitchcocks psychosis (1960). Only in color. And that’s exactly what he did with his version of psychosis (1998) starring Vince Vaughn, Julianne Moore and the late Anne Heche, who accidentally died this summer after her car crashed into a residential house.
Could the Safdie Brothers take a page from Gus Van Sant’s book and use this post…gemstones moment to remake one of their favorite movies, The French Connection (1971)?
The Safdie Brothers named The French Connection as one of their favorite movies
Just over fifty years ago, William Friedkin’s hit and Oscar-sweeping film, The French connection, dropped in American cinemas like a cinéma vérité atomic bomb. Based on Robin Moore’s 1969 nonfiction book of the same name, Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider play a pair of real-life NYPD police detectives who discover a French heroin smuggling ring. Inspired by the raw documentary realism of political thrillers like The Battle of Algiers (1966) and z (1969), Friedkin shot French connection with a handheld camera that gives The hunger Games (2012) a run for its money.
To increase documentary realism, Friedkin and cinematographer Owen Roizman stuck to natural light sources and omitted the glamorous Hollywood lighting. They purposely made it look like crap by capturing the garbage-lined streets of New York City at the height of 1970s urban decay, something Todd Philips had to recreate for. joker (2019).
French connection features one of the cinema’s biggest car chases in which Hackman’s character drives through busy intersections under an elevated train. The montage of the chase (and the entire movie) is borderline schizophrenic. Friedkin “stole” many of the shots and fired without obtaining the proper permits. So if it looks like the car almost collided with oncoming traffic, it’s because it actually almost collided with oncoming traffic. The Safdie Brothers were so influenced by Friedkin’s cinéma vérité approach that they too have become known for ‘stealing shots’. Benny Safdie told Far Out Magazine:
“[The French Connection] is one of the most incredible police and pulp movies out there. The camera work, Gene Hackman, looking down from the roof. That chase scene alone says it all [in my top five favorite movies]. You hear how they made that film and you really feel the bare hands that went into that thing.”
A remake of The French Connection could revise the racial politics of the original
The French Connection won Best Picture at the 44th Academy Awards. Hackman won Best Actor. Friedkin, best director. It also won Best Editor and Best Cinematography. It was one of North America’s highest-grossing films of 1971. The film is considered a landmark in New Hollywood Cinema. Spielberg studied it before making it Munich (2005). If the bar is so high, why would the Safdie Brothers want to touch it? Or any director?
Iconic car chases aside, modern audiences can’t see Friedkin’s film for what it was in the early ’70s without hitting one major speed bump: racial politics. Hackman’s antihero isn’t just unabashedly racist, it’s essentially the only character trait Fridekin gives his main character other than a pit bull persistence to the beat. It’s not so much that the contemporary public would dismiss racist cops as anti-heroes (although they may have a hard time rooting for them). The deeper issue is the film’s ambiguity towards its antihero. There’s no backlash whatsoever when Hackman’s character barks abusive language into an entire bar full of African Americans.
The Safdie Brothers have dived into racial waters to a lesser extent in their movie that preceded it Uncut gemstones. Robert Pattinson starred in Good time (2017) as criminal white boy (along the lines of Breaking Bad‘s Jesse Pinkman) whose recklessness caused the people of color around him to bear the consequences. In a French connection remake with Sandler in the role of Hackman, The Safdies were able to explore racial politics through a modern lens as they did in Good time.