"Watching Marty Supreme reminded me of a time I was invited to watch a trio of shorts written, filmed, and edited by a group of teenagers in a summer film workshop. The first short quickly set up its protagonist as a loser, shunned by his peers, until he proved them wrong, and ended the story surrounded by a group of girls (played by all the girls at film camp) looking at him adoringly. In each subsequent film, the exact thing happened."
"Marty Supreme is, very self-consciously, A LOT. Your enjoyment of that A LOT will be directly predicated on your capacity to ride the rollercoaster of yet another film about one dude's quest for the trappings of success-prizes, hotel room upgrades, and the complete absence of a nine-to-five job or any responsibility to any other person, ever. It also often feels like a more Hollywood iteration of the Safdie brothers' magnum opus"
A trio of teen-made shorts repeatedly followed the same trope: a shunned male protagonist proves himself and is suddenly idolized by female characters. That anecdote introduces a recurring theme of male-driven storytelling and gratification. Marty Supreme is an extravagant, self-conscious film directed by Josh Safdie, co-written with Ronald Bronstein, and led by Timothée Chalamet, produced with A24's largest studio budget to date. The narrative centers on Marty Mauser, a dirtbag shoe salesman in early 1950s New York who is notably skilled at ping-pong but short on funds to reach the world championships. The film echoes Uncut Gems by replacing gambling compulsion with compulsive scamming and emphasizing spectacle, prizes, and reckless pursuit of success without responsibility.
Read at Portland Mercury
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