The American dream is alive and desperate as ever in Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet). He wants to be great. He knows with absolute certainty, that he will be great. He’s arrogant, bullish, morally bankrupt, and utterly charming. The titular character in Josh Safdie’s latest film makes you wonder, is this what it has always meant to be an American?
Marty Supreme is Josh Safdie’s first solo directorial effort in 17 years after his split with co-director and brother Benny Safdie. And from the first opening sequence that breathlessly follows Marty from the cramped shoe store in 1952 New York City, where he is the best (and most irritating) salesman, into the dark stockroom where he and his married girlfriend Rachel (Odessa A’zion) have sweaty, hurried sex, it’s crystal clear that the signature frantic energy that has characterized the Safdies’ movies like Good Time and Uncut Gems all comes from Josh. And when the sex scene cuts suddenly to a shot of Marty’s semen swimming through the uterus to the soaring synthy vocals of Alphaville’s “Forever Young,” it’s even more abundantly clear that Marty Supreme is operating on a level of ballsy absurdity that no other movie this year can dream of touching.
