Austin American-Statesman Tuesday, December 31, 2019 D1

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This Sept. 9 photo shows , center, star of the film “,” posing for a portrait with co-directors Benny Safdie, left, and his brother Josh Safdie at the St. Regis Hotel during the Toronto International Film Festival. [CONTRIBUTED BY CHRIS PIZZELLO/INVISION/AP] Starring Sandler

The had only one person in mind to lead ‘Uncut Gems’ — and they were willing to wait

By Sonia Rao thriller, inspired by stories The Washington Post the Safdies’s father told them about his time work- here’s a chance Adam ing on the West Sandler could land block, has been roughly a Tan Oscar nomina- decade in the making. There tion for “Uncut Gems” next were the usual delays — month — perhaps a surpris- script rewrites and what- ing development to those not — but also the brothers’ who can recall the come- tireless pursuit of Sandler. dian’s numerous nods from “He can ground these the Razzies, which parody insane situations in reality to traditional award shows by the point where you care and honoring cinema’s great- you’re rooting for this char- est failures each year. acter with all your heart,” While some point to Benny recently said by Sandler’s dramatic turns in phone. “That was something “Punch-Drunk Love” and we knew was important for “The Meyerowitz Stories” as Howard. He’s going to test proof of his acting abilities, in a scene from “Uncut Gems.” [CONTRIBUTED BY VIA AP] you, but you always need to sibling filmmakers Josh and love him and root for him.” Benny Safdie credit his com- It took years to secure edy records and some sil- him for their latest project. tries to repay his gambling As is to be expected, Sandler for a role that the lier roles — including “Billy “Uncut Gems,” released debts by auctioning off a Howard’s convoluted Safdies, along with fre- Madison,” “Happy Gilmore” on Christmas Day, stars long-sought-after rock scheme doesn’t quite go quent collaborator Ronald and even the Razzie- Sandler as Howard Ratner, from Ethiopia containing as planned — and the same Bronstein, seem to have nominated “Big Daddy” — a jeweler in ’s rare black opals. (Read the could be said of “Uncut as the reason they wanted Diamond District who review at austin360.com.) Gems” itself. The buzzy See SANDLER, D6

THINK TEXAS We turn the clock back 20,000 years at the Gault Site in Central Texas

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Sign up for Think, Texas, deliv- ered every Tuesday at statesman. com/newsletters. Each free Michael Barnes newsletter contains two dozen Texas History stories and links. Follow Michael Barnes on FLORENCE — We his- : @outandabout tory buffs geek out when Miss a column? Check out the we visit important sites Think, Texas archive at states- COMING from history or prehis- man.com/think-texas. WEDNESDAY tory for the first time. Have a question? Email Michael Recently, I drove breath- and the Think, Texas team at think- EMBRACE lessly to Florence on the bor- [email protected]. der of Bell and Williamson THE CHAOS counties to visit the Gault D. Clark Wernecke, executive director of the Gault School, shows a Site, a vast archaeological far from the Lampasas River How to minimize decorated stone tool that was found at the Gault archaeological site. treasure trove that dates with all the basic needs of dinner party It might represent the oldest dated art in the Americas. back some 20,000 years. hosting stress [JAY JANNER / AMERICAN-STATESMAN] It’s a beautiful spot not See TEXAS, D6 D6 Tuesday, December 31, 2019 Austin American-Statesman

Dangerfield, (Howard) of an individual artist,” SANDLER gets no respect. All describing something he wants to do is get immediately apparent in From Page D1 to that seat at the the Safdies’ film. (In this table. He’s a dreamer context, they operate and wants something together as that artist.) written with the actor larger than himself.” Each of their projects in mind. His team While Sandler grounds favors an empathetic, passed on the script “Uncut Gems,” his if not always sympa- upon first receiving it performance is just one thetic, view of its flawed in 2011. It wasn’t until of many out-of-the-box characters. This was Sandler witnessed the elements — the Safdies, true of “,” giddy chaos of “Good for instance, rewrote as well as of “Heaven Time,” the Safdies’s parts of the script each Knows What,” their raw 2017 film starring Robert time they cast a role. 2014 film about a heroin Pattinson as a bank Howard’s wife, Dinah addict that led Pattinson robber that premiered (Idina Menzel), and to approach them at the Cannes Film their children rose in about collaborating. Festival, that Sandler prominence at Sandler’s Such characters give asked, per Benny, “Look, request. The brothers “Uncut Gems” its title, who are these guys asked Julia Fox, a new- Adam Sandler stars in “Uncut Gems.” [CONTRIBUTED BY A24 VIA AP] according to Benny. and why do they want comer who steals scenes They’re “rough and to meet with me?” as Howard’s mistress, ugly on the outside” The answer surprised how she would react to Of that beep, Benny rest his voice as much camera movements and but can be fascinating him — Howard, as Benny certain situations. The said: “To me, that’s the as possible ahead of the way he explores life once you look below recalled Sandler saying, film takes place in 2012 one sound that makes the recording DVD com- is so — it’s evergreen.” the surface. As with the “is not a good guy.” The in part because casting entire space feel real. ... mentary, piped up Much has been made opal, which Garnett’s Safdies have continually former Celtics player When the front door is anyway to praise “one of of Scorsese’s recent character regards as a described him as lovable, as a ver- open, everybody needs the masters and mon- comments that Marvel magical token of good if not likable. He’s the sion of himself meant to know. That little noise sters of the art form.” films aren’t cinema. luck but that Howard lying, cheating, philan- it would make sense can do so much. It’s all in “When he got on (“It’s absurd that was values only for its mon- dering protagonist of a to feature games from the details. When you add board, it was a shot of even a controversy,” etary worth, you have film that Variety com- the Eastern Conference them together, it creates adrenaline,” Josh said. Josh said.) But the New to put in the work to pared to a “protracted semifinals that year. a full sense of the world.” “It raised the profile. York Times op-ed see that beauty. The heart attack,” and yet This all served a That world can be When he puts his name Scorsese penned in reac- Safdies mine for what you can’t help hoping sense of realism, which overwhelming to the on something and brings tion to the hullabaloo lies beneath Howard’s his ploys work out in extends to the frenetic senses, but then so can it up, he’s basically say- wound up a thought- loathsome behavior. the end. Sandler’s mag- soundscape, as well. In . The ing, ‘You should see this ful piece that, per Josh, “Howard may be doing netic screen presence is Howard’s store, which Safdies depict their film.’ That’s unbeliev- explored how movies bad things, but he’s not undeniable, but it’s his was built on a sound hometown with a gritty able. Him putting his are “documents that a bad person,” Benny ability to make the care- stage, you can hear five honesty perhaps akin to belief behind something really allow us to ques- said. “It wouldn’t work ful distinction between conversations at once, that of , means a lot. I guess, tion human behavior with anybody else. We lovable and likable that layered atop Midtown an executive producer on yeah, the fact is that we and really look at it in looked at other actors, could cast him into the street sounds, Daniel “Uncut Gems.” At the can’t help but be inspired a microcosmic way.” but it never fully made tight race for best actor. Lopatin’s score and mention of Scorsese’s by him. The characters Scorsese states in the sense. It was really only “He could see it,” a high-pitched beep name, Josh, who was he puts on screen, the op-ed that an essential when Sandler hopped Benny said of Sandler. each time the show- sick at the time of the emotional complex- component of cinema on board that we really “It’s like Rodney room’s door opens. phone call and trying to ity of those people, the is “the unifying vision could take it home.”

2002, and just before technology that follows TEXAS the UT lease ended, it,” Wernecke says. “We archaeologists found also have some parts of From Page D1 the stone floor of what that lithic record, like the might be the oldest projectile points, that excavated building look nothing like later humanity — food, water, in North America. cultures in Texas. While material for shelter — 7. In 2007, after this is to be expected of nearby. Additionally, Collins bought the an older technology, we chert, the flinty mate- property and donated do not yet have enough rial used for projectile it to the Archaeological data from other sites to points, glints from every Conservancy, the Gault look at a larger (pre-Clo- ledge and hummock. School excavated test vis) culture.” The Gault D. Clark Wernecke, units to show visiting School tests multiple executive director archaeologists the geol- sites here in Texas each of the Gault School ogy of the site and found year, utilizing volunteers of Archaeological artifacts that predated to look for similar dates, Research, and Tom the Clovis culture. What geology and technology. Williams, assistant lay below are among 9. The diggers are executive director, met the oldest human arti- coming to town! The me there on a chilly facts in the Americas, Society for American Saturday morning. They dating from 16,000 to Archaeology’s annual told me countless fas- 20,000 years ago. meeting, one of the larg- cinating stories, along 8. If so, the evidence est gatherings of archae- with a few groan-wor- indicates that first ologists worldwide, will thy puns, and happily humans who came to the be in Austin from April answered countless half- Americas came not by 22 to 26. Find more informed questions. foot but by boat down information at saa.org. Previously, my former the Atlantic, Pacific 10. You can donate to American-Statesman or both coastlines. the Gault School on its colleague Pam LeBlanc, 9. Among the find- website (gaultschool. now of Pam LeBlanc ings were etched stones Tom Williams and D. Clark Wernecke of the Gault School of Archaeological Research org) or by mail. “We Adventures, had worked that might be the old- were my guides on this chilly morning at the Gault Site, where the human artifacts go always have several at the Gault Site when it est dated human art back 20,000 years. [MICHAEL BARNES/AMERICAN-STATESMAN] larger projects that was an active dig, then in the Americas. need large donations,” she revisited it once 10. The site, which Wernecke says. “Some some of the interpre- includes a never-dry GIS — geographical much earlier than we about the peopling of even having naming tive work was done. springs, limestone information systems — previously thought, the Americas is now opportunities. You can outcroppings and huge which record the exact 20,000 years ago vs. dead, and we do not yet join the Gault School as 10 things we learned amounts of chert, was provenience of each 13,500,” Wernecke have enough informa- a member, and informa- from Pam’s 2014 something of a semi- artifact excavated. says, “which means tion to form a new one.” tion is on our website. story about the permanent settlement 5. A new research that people arrived in 8. A new discovery: You also can volun- Gault Site: with what might be technique: optically the Americas even ear- “We have a stone tool teer in the lab or field called a manufactur- stimulated lumines- lier than that. The old technology that, in part, to help us find data on 1. In 1909, Henry ing center for chert cence (OSL) dating. Soil story we have been told resembles the Clovis tool the oldest Texans.” Gault turned up arti- objects. It also contains samples are taken hori- facts thousands of years extinct mammoth, horse zontally from different old while cultivating and bison remains. strata top to bottom. his bottomlands on Then, in a darkroom, Buttermilk Creek. 10 new things small particles of quartz 2. In 1929, Professor learned before or and feldspar are sepa- J.P. Pearce, former during our 2019 tour rated from this sample principal of Austin High and exposed to a spe- and founder of the UT 1. One of the oldest cial light, the optical department of anthro- projectile points from stimulation, and they pology, led the first the site is on display “luminesce,” or give off formal dig on the site. at a redesigned early energy that tells us when 3. In the 1980s, the Texas history exhibit, they last saw the sun. site became a pay-to-dig “Becoming Texas,” at 6. Another new operation; visitors paid the Bullock Texas State research technique: $25 to haul off what they History Museum. Archaeology uses scien- found. They also left 2. Scientists are now tific methods and instru- behind a lot of cigarette dating more artifacts mentation borrowed butts and beer cans. at the site to as far from many fields. When 4. Topsoil contained back as 20,000 years studying the incised thousands of artifacts ago, making it among stones, there was dif- dating back 9,000 years. a dozen pre-Clovis ficulty in seeing worn A little deeper were sites in the Americas. lines thousands of years older artifacts, includ- 3. Scientific excava- old on soft limestone, so ing “Clovis” era artifacts tion is done at the site, researchers used poly- — named after a site in but tours are given nomial texture mapping New Mexico — showing monthly through the (PTM), which is also tool-making techniques Bell and Williamson known as reflectance that went back more county history muse- transformation imaging than 13,000 years. ums. The Gault School (RTI), a computational 5. In 1998, the for- will also schedule a tour photographic method mer landowners found for any group of 10 or of recording the texture a mammoth jawbone more. Times, dates and and color of an object by and notified UT archae- details to be found at combining 64 different ologists, who uncovered the Gault School web- images. The resulting “more Clovis artifacts site: gaultschool.org. image can be manipu- than I’d seen in my life,” 4. Computers are lated to make things like archaeologist and Clovis helping to collate the faint lines clearly visible. expert Mike Collins said. millions of artifacts 7. A reconfirmed 6. In excavations found at the site at dif- discovery: “People between 1999 and ferent levels. Especially were in Central Texas