Benny and Josh Safdie are at a major crossroads in their film lives. While the two previously worked on movies together, the brothers are beginning to pursue solo careers. Their first films are both set to come out this year: Benny wrote, directed, and co-produced The Smashing Machine, while Josh is behind Marty Supreme, a star-studded A24 production led by Timothée Chalamet.
The latter movie is Chalamet’s first since portraying Bob Dylan in last year’s A Complete Unknown. He has some unexpected cast mates joining him this time around, including Kevin O’Leary (the businessman and Shark Tank star, yes) and Penn Jillette (of the long-running magician duo Penn & Teller).
Ahead of the movie’s release, keep reading for everything you need to know before it lands in theaters.
Plot
The official logline reads simply, “Marty Mauser, a young man with a dream no one respects, goes to hell and back in pursuit of greatness.”
The movie is believed to be loosely inspired by real-life ping-pong pro Marty Reisman, though A24 has said the film is “not actually based on him.”
The plot has been kept relatively under wraps, but Gwyneth Paltrow told Vanity Fair of her character, “This woman who is married to someone who is in the ping-pong mafia, as it were. [She and Mauser] meet and she’s had a pretty tough life, and I think he breathes life back into her, but it’s kind of transactional for them both.”
Cast
The movie stars Timothée Chalamet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A’zion, Kevin O’Leary, Tyler Okonma (Tyler, The Creator), Abel Ferrara, Fran Drescher, and Penn Jillette.
Darius Khondji, the movie’s cinematographer, told Variety that Chalamet “for months and months” for the role, saying, “You can do anything, any camera tricks you want, but you need to have a core. He wanted to be like a real [professional] ping-pong player when he started shooting.” He added that the movie features “some of the greatest real ping-pong champions playing today” in character as players from the 1950s.
Khondji also said, “[Chalamet] is going to be very different than the Timothée Chalamet you’ve seen so far. I don’t think people are going to recognize him at all. [Viewers] will not recognize the usual romantic.” He added, “The movie is about everything but ping-pong.”
Release Date
The film is set to hit theaters on Christmas, December 25.
Trailer
Check out the Marty Supreme teaser trailer below.
