Don't look now, folks, but we suddenly have an arm's race of Safdie Brother movies on our hands. The sibling director duo, most famous for films like "Good Time" and "Uncut Gems" in recent years, have since gone their separate ways. Benny Safdie is currently focused on "The Smashing Machine," the Dwayne Johnson-starring MMA drama that clearly has its sights set on awards season. Josh, meanwhile, is taking aim at similar subject matter with a bona fide movie star in his own right. "Marty Supreme"
features Timothée Chalamet in the lead role, portraying a real-life ping pong aficionado -- yes, you read that right. It remains to be seen whether the Safdies' divide-and-conquer approach will pay off but, well, getting twice the amount of Sadie Brother movies in the same year feels like a win to me.
Indie studio A24 is handling the distribution for both of the brothers' movies, and it's just released our first extended look at "Marty Supreme" with a new trailer. The footage from the 1950s-set adaptation definitely shows off all the hallmarks we've come to know and love from a Safdie movie. What's more, we can pretty much guarantee you've never seen the sport of ping pong (if it can be considered a sport?) rendered with as much dramatics as it is here. Oh, and like "Uncut Gems" before it, this apparently features a cameo by the most unexpected -- and controversial -- of figures. Let's just say that fans of the entrepreneurial reality TV series "Shark Tank" are in for one heck of a jump scare. Check out the trailer above!
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Marty Supreme Is Channeling The Same Oddball Energy As Uncut Gems
Move over, "Forrest Gump" and "Balls of Fury," because there's a new American ping pong prodigy in town, and his name is Marty Reisman. "Marty Supreme" comes from director Josh Safdie and was co-written by both Safdie and Ronald Bronstein. And by all accounts, anyone who might've been nervous about Josh and Benny Safdie splitting up needn't have worried in the first place. The newly-released trailer might make the movie seem like a fairly standard biopic on the surface, but there's just enough oddball energy in the margins to convince us there's much more going on here than meets the eye.
Just take the ensemble cast, for instance. Timothée Chalamet will inevitably soak up a lot of the headlines, naturally, along with co-stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A'zion, and even famous film figures Abel Ferrara and Fran Drescher. But those who know their "Shark Tank" lore (a phrase I never expected to actually type out on Slashfilm.com) likely were startled by one utterly surprising cast member: Canadian businessman, failed politician, and blustering "Shark Tank" personality Kevin O'Leary. This immediately brings to mind another infamous cameo in the last Safdie Brothers film, "Uncut Gems," when New York-area radio talk show host Mike Francesa appeared in a pair of scenes as a bookie for Adam Sandler's gambling addict Howard. Unlike that one, however, O'Leary appears to be playing quite a sizable role opposite Chalamet's Marty Reisman, which is almost certain to stoke a fair bit of controversy when one considers O'Leary's real-life history that can be charitably described as "checkered." In any case, all of this fictional and real-life drama can't help but remind us of "Uncut Gems" -- hopefully for the better.
"Marty Supreme" will hit theaters just in time for the holiday season: December 25, 2025.
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