Adam Sandler got robbed after ‘Uncut Gems’ Oscars snub

Sandler deserved to be a Best Actor nominee.

I’m not going to pretend to have seen all of the movies that garnered Oscar nominations on Monday.

But I have seen Uncut Gems. And I can say this with relative certainty: Adam Sandler got robbed.

Oh sure, the Leading Actor category is stuffed this year. Leonardo DiCaprio (Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood), Adam Driver (Marriage Story) and Joaquin Phoenix (Joker) all seemed like shoo-ins. I’ve heard some buzz about legendary director Pedro Almodovar’s Pain and Glory and The Two Popes, which produced nominees Antonio Banderas and Jonathan Pryce, respectively.

But let’s take a minute and think about Sandler’s performance.

I’ve never seen Sandler play a character like this — Howard Ratner, the scheming, hustling diamond district jewelry dealer whose string-pulling and gambling all over New York City drives him further and further into trouble with criminals and his family — one who’s inherently unlikable … and makes us root for him.

Gone is the family man who wants to bring joy to the screen and entertain us. His Ratner is always smiling, his eyes hidden many times by his transition lenses like a poker pro, as he finds the next get-rich-and-settle-my-debts-at-the-same-time scheme. In this case, it’s with his co-star, future Hall of Famer Kevin Garnett playing himself, finding exactly the right way to convince Garnett to blow away the competition just so Ratner can win some big-money bets.

The Sandler we’ve known for decades — even through some of his more serious roles in flicks like Punch-Drunk Love and Reign Over Me — is gone. And that’s a huge reason he deserves the nomination even if he probably wouldn’t have won the award (I think this is Phoenix’s race to lose).

Was it because the movie was so sports-centric that it turned off voters? Was it TOO gritty? Was it because when you first think of Sandler, you think of Happy Gilmore, Billy Madison, Robbie Hart, Bobby Boucher and Longfellow Deeds? If any of those are the reasons, that’s ridiculous.

Here are others who agree:

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