The Safdie brothers have emerged from relatively meager beginnings to a prestige name that many A-Listers past and present have been eager to work with. Since January of 2024, the brothers announced they would no longer be directing projects as a team and would pursue their own solo careers. Since then, Josh has directed and produced an Adam Sandler comedy special for Netflix, while Benny directed, wrote and produced “The Smashing Machine”. This film has created quite a bit of hype (including Oscar talk) due partially to the massive transformation of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson… although it’s worth noting the “Smashing Machine” has just bombed in the box office even if the critics love it.
Josh’s newest film, “Marty Supreme” is loosely inspired by the life of American ping-ping champion Marty Reisman but has not released a detailed synopsis beyond the logline which states: “Marty Mauser, a young man with a dream no one respects, goes to hell and back in pursuit of greatness.” The movie has not had many production updates since reshoots took place in Japan back in February of this year. Earlier tonight at the New York film festival, A24 would hold a “surprise screening” for the movie and it’s generating an intense buzz, particularly around the star Timothée Chalamet’s performance that some are deeming Oscar worthy. The Co-Editor in Chief of variety, Ramon Setoodeh, gave the film a glowing review saying the film was like “… ‘Uncut Gems’ meets ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ meets ‘Herry Maguire’, carried by Timothée Chalamet’s best performance yet.”
Earlier tonight at the New York film festival, A24 would hold a “surprise screening” for the movie and it’s generating an intense buzz, particularly around the star Timothée Chalamet’s performance that some are deeming Oscar worthy.”
Other press in attendance called the movie an “awe inspiring cinematic tour de force” and credited Chalamet with the “performance of a lifetime”. A festival chairman gave Safdie an equal compliment, calling “Marty Supreme” his “best film yet”. Both Safdie brothers just have an innate sense of comedy combined with a knack for pulling deeply inspired performances out of the actors that they collaborate with, but Josh seems to have outdone himself. Did the brothers have a falling out? Are they continually trying to outdo each other? Whatever they are doing – it’s working.
The film boasts A24’s biggest budget yet at 70 million, surpassing 2024’s “Civil War” qt $50 million. The cast notably includes Gwyneth Paltrow, who had a multitude of articles come out about the fact that her and Chalamet had a lot of simulated sex in the movie. Paltrow was frustrated with the intimacy coordinator and had them stand down after some frustrations, which obviously made the internet collectively lose it’s mind. Chalamet’s girlfriend, Kylie Jenner had an event in Paris earlier today, but made sure to be there for her SO’s big surprise premiere, obviously joule had nothing to do with it…
Other cast members are Odessa A’Zion, Kevin O’Leary, Abel Ferrara, Fran Drescher, Penn Juliette and Sandra Bernhardt amongst others. A24 will be releasing “Marty Supreme” on Christmas Day this year and they will undoubtedly be putting the majority of their marketing budget into promoting what sounds like a possible “movie of the year”. Although the movie is inspired by real-life, multiple members of the cast and crew have stressed that the project is a fictionalized original and not a biopic.
Chalamet took the role very seriously and trained with ping-pong legends Diego Schafer and Wei Wang. The film featured over 100 non actor performers’ including a French highwire artist. Safdie pushed Chalamet to do his own stunts and even asked him to wear prescription glasses with contacts underneath to make the actor’s eyes look smaller. This impaired Chalamet vision, but e touched it out for the role and his sacrifice looks like it might pay off big time.
The film was written by Safdie and longtime Safdie Brother collaborator, Ronald Bronstein.
The film was shot I n the five boroughs of NYC and both Chalamet and Safdie are New York natives, which probably played a part in the decision to premiere the film at the New York Film Festival. Safdie actually took the stage before the premiere and spoke with the crowd.He said: “I hate surprises too.” Safdie revealed the screening may not have happened at all if he didn’t finish the previous night when he said “I finished it at 2am.” Principal production wrapped back in December of 2024, a ten month turnaround time seems a but excessive for a non-superhero movie, but Safdie has been likely tweaking and fine tuning the small details that help make the Safdie Brothers movies memorable.
What do you think? Is “Marty Supreme” going to be the best movie of 2025? Is this Chalamet’s once in a lifetime performance? Will the film or it’s star get an Oscar? What’s going on with the Safdie Brothers? How will Benny respond to Josh’s “Marty Supreme” mic drop? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
