plug: Sweet Smell of Success (1957) + Uncut Gems (2019)

A pulse-pounding New York Noir double feature.

I’ve never spent any amount of meaningful time in New York City. But I love “New York movies” from New York filmmakers who capture the city’s buzz, rhythms, and pulsating life in ways that I can only assume are authentic and lived-in because they just feel that way. And since Uncut Gems, the latest in a long line of great New York movies, is now streaming on Netflix, I thought I’d recommend pairing it with another flashy, trashy, innovative and jazzy New York Noir from the late ‘50s.

Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

Sweet Smell of Success is the oldest movie I’ve plugged at ESH so far, but it’s a fuckin ripper from beginning to end. From its pulsating opening credits (a thrilling sequence of nighttime New York street shots set to Elmer Bernstein’s propulsive jazz score) to its killer, breakneck pacing and deliciously abrupt ending, Sweet Smell of Success is a relentless trip. From the onset we’re thrust into the violent, cutthroat tabloid scene of 1950s Broadway, where down-on-his-luck press agent Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) must bend to the will of famous gossip columnist J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster) to land high-profile mentions for his clients in Hunsecker’s nationally syndicated column. Over the course of his central errand for Hunsecker — foiling a relationship between Hunsecker’s sister and an up-and-coming Jazz guitarist — Falco runs all over New York like a madman, lining up a series of interconnected schemes in hopes that all the pieces will come together and the rewards will take him to the top of his trade.

Director Alexander Mackendrick gives the story a bizarre, rapid Noir flavor with thrilling cuts, tight framing, and some inventive camera movements that I reckon must have had a direct influence on Martin Scorsese, Paul Thomas Anderson and the like. The screenplay was co-written by Ernest Lehman, a former assistant to a press agent and columnist for The Hollywood Reporter, and though the film’s quippy, rapid-fire dialogue was largely penned by screenwriter Clifford Odets, it was Lehman who provided the authentic details of the New York tabloid scene, and used infamous real-life gossip columnist Walter Winchell as the basis for J.J. Hunsecker. Lancaster is a terrifying, unstoppable force as the sociopathic, razor-tongued columnist, and rumor has it cinematographer James Wong Howe (whose work in this film should also be lauded) smeared Lancaster’s glasses with Vaseline to infuse the actor’s firey, unnerving stare with an added dose of cold menace — a brilliant, dirty little detail in a movie that’s all dirty little details.

Uncut Gems (2019)

Uncut Gems is also a film of details, and the Safdie Brothers (Good Time) line them all up with precision and gonzo finesse to recreate the authentic look, feel, and energy of New York’s Diamond District. Just like Sweet Smell of Success, it’s the specificity of a real, captured world that grounds the technical jazz of the filmmaking. At the center of that world is Adam Sandler as Howard Ratner, a New York jeweler and gambler who runs his own series of cons, scams, and setups in an endless spiral of risk taking and fast talking. As loan sharks, mounting debts, angry family members, and a bamboozled Kevin Garnett all close in, Howard zig and zags from one moment of chance to the next, setting the stage for the score that’ll make it all worth it.

Though the main attraction of Uncut Gems is undoubtedly Sandler, who gives the performance of his career within the ultra-specific framework of the Safdies’ oeuvre, it’s the pair of sibling directors that make this movie a one-of-a-kind experience. I’ve yet to talk to someone who’s seen this movie that didn't either love it or hate it, and I think it’s because the Safdies’ films hum on a rare, sublime register, however unnerving that register may be. Uncut Gems feels like a new kind of movie, yet cut from the same frenetic East Coast cloth (or gem, as it were) as Sweet Smell of Success. So if you’re down to watch a pair of great New York movies about desperate men addicted to the rush and hustle of their own sordid lives, try this double feature on for size.