Josh Safdie | Bouquets & Brickbats

01/01/2026

Cineworld, Edinburgh

Our first film of 2026 was supposed to be our last film of 2025. But we were in North Wales where, for some inexplicable reason, Marty Supreme simply wasn’t yet available in cinemas and we were obliged to watch The Housemaid instead. So obviously, when it came time to start the process anew, there was only one logical choice.

It’s clear from the opening scenes that Josh Safdie’s frenetic odyssey about ambitious young table tennis player, Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet), is going to be something very special. The titular character is loosely based on a real-life ping pong star, the late Marty Reisman – though whether the man who inspired this story was the swaggering, single-minded, motor-mouthed huckster portrayed here is up for debate.

Certainly, many of the incidents portrayed in the script – co-written by Safdie and Ronald Bronstein – echo real life events, though the filmmakers are quick to point out that it’s all fictional.

When we first encounter Marty, he’s grudgingly working at his Uncle Murray’s shoe shop in New York City. This is solely to fund his upcoming journey to England, where he’ll be competing in the 1952 World Table Tennis Championship. He’s also enjoying a clandestine affair with Rachel (Odessa A’zion), an unhappily-married woman who works in the shop next door, and whom Marty soon manages to impregnate. In fact, we actually witness this biological process over the film’s opening credits.

Once at the championships, Marty hooks up with former movie actress, Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow). He sees her as a possible source of funding for his future endeavours and, after a swift telephone seduction, he enjoys a quick dalliance with her. Her husband is wealthy industrialist Milton Rockwell (Kevin O’ Leary), a manufacturer of fountain pens.

Meanwhile, as the ping pong tournament progresses, Marty easily vanquishes all the opposing players until, in the final, he’s matched against Japanese player, Koto Endo (Koto Kawaguchi). The newcomer’s idiosyncratic style of play utterly throws Marty. He loses the match and is obliged to return to America humiliated – but his determination to win turns into an overwhelming obsession…

To label Marty Supreme as ‘a film about table tennis’ would be something of an understatement. Yes, it is that – and the many sequences that depict the sport are undeniably gripping – but it’s also a multi-faceted examination of ambition, greed and the almost pathological need to win at all costs. Chalamet has always been an accomplished actor but here he delivers a performance of such staggering intensity, it just might be the one that finally steers him in the direction of that coveted Oscar podium.

I also want to mention production designer Jack Fisk, who came out of retirement for this film, and captures the dark squalor of 1950s America with exceptional skill. A technical Oscar for his work would also seem a likely fit.

As for the director, anyone who saw Uncut Gems – which Safdie co-directed with his brother, Benny – will know that he has a penchant for ramping up anxiety to almost unbearable levels. That quality is certainly very much in evidence here as the film careers from one stress-inducing set piece to the next, barely allowing me time to draw breath. The movie is also packed with legions of oddball characters who surge onto the screen, capture my interest and just as swiftly vanish. The film is sometimes weird, occasionally startling and always heart-stoppingly brilliant.

If the self-aggrandising Marty isn’t the kind of character who usually inspires a viewer’s allegiance (he’s self-centred and utterly convinced of his own talent), Safdie is wise enough to surround him with even more despicable people, chief among them oily fat-cat Rockwell, who, at one point, takes the greatest pleasure in humiliating Marty for the entertainment of his friends. The result is that I’m always rooting for our antihero, even when I’m horrified at the depths he’s prepared to sink to.

This is quite simply a gobsmacking film – and I have no doubts whatsoever that it’s destined to feature in our ‘best of’ list for 2026. Make sure you catch it where it belongs, on the biggest screen you can find.

5 stars

Philip Caveney

19/01/20

Hold the front-page! Adam Sandler has made a good movie. Actually, he’s made an excellent one. That’s not something I get to say very often.

To give the man his due, those with long memories will recall his assured turn in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love (2002) and, more recently, he was pretty decent in The Meyerowitz Stories, but these lapses into quality are few and far between. Most of his output can be filed under E for ‘Embarrassing.’ So his starring role in the Safdie Brothers Uncut Gems is something of a revelation. Not only does he nail the central character perfectly, it’s hard to imagine any other actor being such a perfect fit.

Howard Ratner (no relation) is the proprietor of a jewellery store, situated in New York’s infamous ‘diamond district.’ Our introduction to him is unusual to say the least, as it’s via his small intestine – he’s having a colonoscopy. Howard is a wheeler-dealer, a man with a perpetual grin on his face and a gaze fixed resolutely on his next big score. He’s married to the long-suffering Dinah (Idina Menzel), he has several kids and he lives in a nice house in the suburbs. He also owns a swish city apartment where he entertains his mistress, Julia (Julia Fox), who is also an employee at his store. Against all the odds, Julia clearly loves Howard, and he is thinking seriously about leaving Dinah, who really doesn’t like him at all and has no hesitation in telling him so.

Howard senses that the biggest deal of his career is about to pop when he acquires a chunk of African rock containing a vein of rare ‘black’ opals, which he plans to put up for auction. But a visit to the store by famous basketball player Keven Garnett (gamely playing himself) complicates matters, as Garnett takes a shine to the stone and asks if he can ‘hold on to it’ for a day or so. Howard is understandably reluctant but finally agrees when Garnet leaves his championship ring as surety. But the problem is, Howard is an inveterate gambler, in hock to some very dangerous people – and when Garnett puts off returning the stone, a hideously complicated chain of events ensues.

The resulting action feels somewhat akin to a two-hour panic attack as Howard lurches from one desperate scenario to the next, being punched, excoriated and at one point literally stripped naked as he races frantically around, attempting to head off potential disaster. The Safdies achieve the seemingly impossible here by making me root for the frankly odious Howard; indeed, I’m soon so invested in him that I spend most of the movie perched on the edge of my seat, chewing my fingernails and praying that things will turn out well for him. And I’m hooked right up to the film’s heart-stopping conclusion.

Those who can’t cope with stress may not want to watch this. At times it feels like a genuinely life-shortening experience. But that, in my book, is a recommendation.

Uncut Gems will be streaming on Netflix from the end of the month, though I suspect its considerable powers will be somewhat diminished through the filter of a small screen. If you get the chance to see it in the cinema, take my advice – get it booked, grab a seat and buckle in for a thrill-ride.

4.6 stars

Philip Caveney