Marty Supreme (2025)

Lettrboxd "Look At Me" reviews:

"Someone do a safety check on Josh Safdie."

"Double XL piece of shit becomes Single XL piece of shit."

"If this film takes any awards from its above-the-line competition, I riot."

"Sperm meets Egg was done better in 1989."

My real review:

I liken watching a Safdie (either, or both) to Alex in Clockwork Orange being forced to ingest all the horrid shit the world has to offer, but in a condensed 2:30 package. Yet, I could've gotten up at any time, unlike Alex. 

Technically, this film is a five-star film... hands down. From the ridiculous (in a good way) period production design to the score, which shouldn't work in a '50s period film but, because of whose film it is, fits like a glove to the phenomenal cinematography that immerses us in the madness that the stellar editing thrusts into our eyes and brains. 

But then there is the content of that technical masterpiece.

Does Mr. Safdie really want us to believe that a character who spent 149 minutes of its 153-minute runtime being a complete piece of human garbage who used everyone around him and caused death and carnage everywhere he went, has suddenly been redeemed because he saw "his" child and shed a tear? 

I understand the intent. I "get" the film and its ideas. I just ain't buying it. Just because your intention was for us to feel a certain way doesn't mean we will. 

Kudos to Timothee Chalamet for making me feel so strongly about his character, I guess. And the acting as a whole was really fantastic, but the female characters were all extremely underused, and his "buddies" were extremely underdeveloped, which truly hurt any "redemption" we were meant to feel. 

To conclude this review, I truly want to see the Safdie brothers branch out from the stress-inducing type of filmmaking and try to broaden their technical horizons. So far, for me and my tastes, both brothers are 0-1 on their own... with Benny's film being slightly higher in my eyes.