If you’re a Safdie Brothers fan, the final stretch of 2025 is what you’ve been waiting for. It’s been six years since the siblings unleashed Uncut Gems, to palm-sweating effect. For their next projects, they’ve pursued separate movies; Benny Safdie wrangling The Rock in The Smashing Machine, and Josh Safdie teaming up with TImothée Chalamet in Marty Supreme. While Benny has been relatively active in the intervening years (acting in the likes of Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, as well as Obi-Wan Kenobi, and most recently Happy Gilmore 2), Josh has been a more absent presence. But the thunderous first look at Marty Supreme shows off what he’s been cooking – check out the trailer:
This one stars Chalamet as Marty Mauser, a ping-pong star who is destined for possible greatness – clearly displaying considerable ability with the ball, and emanating grand ambitions for what table tennis could become as a cultural force. The film is named after his signature ping-pong ball, the ‘Marty Supreme’, and across the trailer we see him flirting with Gwyneth Paltrow’s movie star, getting pretty intense with Odessa A’zion (recently seen in Until Dawn), and facing off with Tyler ‘The Creator’ Okonma (in his feature film debut). If the tone seems biopic-esque, this is an original story – looking to channel some of that classically intense Safdie Brothers energy.
Josh Safdie wrote this one alongside Good Time and Uncut Gems co-writer Ronald Bronstein – and while he hasn’t collaborated with his brother this time, they’ve each pursued sports films of sorts, since The Smashing Machine is about real-life MMA fighter Mark Kerr. Benny’s film is due first, in cinemas from 3 October; and Marty Supreme comes to US cinemas on Christmas Day. Hopefully it gets a UK release in a similar window – a merry Safdie Christmas for us all.
