It’s hard to believe it’s been six years since Benny and Josh Safdie gave us “Uncut Gems,” the influential thriller that turned Adam Sandler into the embodiment of pure cinematic anxiety.
Since then, the brothers have largely gone their separate ways. Benny has appeared in films roles, including “Oppenheimer” and “Happy Gilmore,” while directing “The Curse” and “The Smashing Machine,” his upcoming MMA biopic starring Dwayne Johnson. Josh, meanwhile, has been working on “Marty Supreme,” a fictional tale of a ping-pong prodigy, starring Timothée Chalamet, and set for Christmas release.
Sadly, audiences hoping for another joint Safdie experience are out of luck, it seems extreme patience will be required: the brothers are firmly broken up.
Benny tells Empire that their careers as filmmakers always meant solo work, and that’s going back to their film school days. “We started making movies separately in college,” he says. “Then we’d converge on something together, and when that ended, it was just natural to chase our individual interests.”
We were always working towards something, and when we reached that place it was almost like, ‘Oh, well, what now?’ Then it was like, ‘I’m interested in this,’ and, ‘I’m interested in this,’ and then you want to figure that out. It just felt like a continuation of a process.”
The takeaway? Safdie fans can look forward to two Safdie films this fall, but a reunion of the brothers feels a long way off. The raw, unfiltered cinematic punch might be coming, just not as a joint effort.
The worst-case scenario? Look at the Coens, who have also gone their separate ways, with Ethan having already directed two turkeys. At least Joel’s “The Tragedy of Macbeth” was visually stunning.
It’s worth noting that the first report of the Safdie split came in 2023 from Jeff Sneider, who revealed that the Adam Sandler-starring baseball movie they were slated to co-direct was canceled due to a “rift between the brothers.” Whether that “rift” still exists is very much unclear.