Cert 15 Stars 4

Adam Sandler gives a dazzling career best performance as a sleazy and desperate diamond dealer in this anxiety-inducing portrait of a man trying to avoid a professional and private collapse of his own making.

Best known as a comic actor but delivering a hyper-caffeinated tour de force in a rare dramatic role, Sandler benefits from the filmmaking skills of co-director and writers, Josh and Benny Safdie.

They’ve delivered another gut-wrenching crime drama to match their 2017, Good Times, which brought the absolute best out of former Twilight star, Robert Pattinson.

At the centre of the plot is the possession of a highly valuable black opal diamond smuggled into the country into the country, and on which a number of side deals are based.

Sandler is belittled, insulted and assaulted as he frantically tries to keep one step ahead of violent debt collectors.

Violent and sharply funny with an extraordinary soundtrack, the nail-chewing finale involves a basketball game, a sport I normally avoid but here had me gripped.