Back in August, I mentioned that Josh Safdie’s “Marty Supreme” would appear as a “surprise screening” at the New York Film Festival. Fast forward to tonight, and the film was shown at Alice Tully Hall.
Reviews are under embargo — the film is technically being unveiled as a “work in progress,” though Safdie revealed at the screening that he literally finished the cut being shown last night at 2 a.m. The runtime clocks in at around 2.5 hours.
Tickets were $50 and sold out in 19 minutes. This is a major event. A24 publicly screened ‘Marty’ nearly 80 days before its release, clearly confident in what they have. Then again, no reviews are allowed until November, or possibly even December. Word of mouth will be driven almost entirely by social media reactions.
Smart call on A24’s part — practically every reaction coming out of NYFF is a rave. Did we expect anything else from a buzzy surprise screening? Should we trust the hype? Who knows, but Josh might have delivered the kind of Oscar contender his brother, Benny, couldn’t with “The Smashing Machine.”
Set in 1953, “Marty Supreme” tells the story of a Ping Pong champion. It is said to be a “fictional work,” though the life of Marty Reisman served as a template. Khondji has stated that the film, written by Safdie and Ronald Bronstein, has around 240 speaking roles — which I still find hard to believe. Can anyone who was in attendance confirm this?
Cinematography comes from the great Darius Khondji, ensuring that these will be the best-looking ping pong matches we’ve ever seen on screen.
This is A24’s most expensive film ever, rumored to have cost aroundp $90M, and with a Christmas release set, it’s clear that hopes are high. The cast is also delightfully eccentric, joining Chalamet: Gwyneth Paltrow, Fran Drescher, Tyler, The Creator, Abel Ferrara, Penn Jillette, Kevin O’Leary (!!!), and Sandra Bernhard.
Speaking of Chalamet, a handful of reactions are calling his performance ‘career-best’ work. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the case and he joins Leonardo DiCaprio at the top of the best actor race — the Oscar could very well come down to these two. Of note, Chalamet, 29, is the youngest two-time Best Actor nominee since James Dean.
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