Marty Supreme Ignites Cambridge: Josh Safdie Returns Home for a Packed Q&A at The Coolidge Corner Theatre

By Klep Napier| Wearecritix.com

CAMBRIDGE, MA. Boston showed up big for filmmaker Josh Safdie this week as The Coolidge Corner Theatre hosted a special screening of his latest film Marty Supreme. The energy was already buzzing as the lights went down, but once the credits rolled and Safdie walked out to join the audience for an in-depth Q and A, the room shifted into something electric. For Safdie, a proud alum of Boston University’s College of Communication, the night doubled as a homecoming and the crowd welcomed him like one of their own.

Josh Safdie (Right) During Marty Supreme Screening. Photo: Klep Napier

The discussion was moderated by longtime friend, collaborator and critic Sean Burns, who wasted no time diving into the origins of the project. Safdie shared that Marty Supreme began with a thrift-store discovery by his wife. A dollar-bin book titled Confessions of a Table Tennis Champion and Hustler. Inside were photos of misfit competitors who frequented Lawrence’s, a long-lost New York ping-pong hall known for attracting outsiders. As Safdie’s uncle described it, it was “the Foot Clan of Midtown.”

From there, Safdie opened up about how the story collided with his personal history. His uncle played alongside real-life table tennis legends in the 1950s, and those memories combined with the post-war Silent Generation backdrop sparked the foundation of the film’s world. What followed was a signature Safdie development process, filled with research, obsessive detail and raw emotional investment.

Safdie also revealed that after finishing Uncut Gems, a decade-long creative marathon, he briefly believed he didn’t want to make movies anymore. “I wanted to be an architect,” he joked. But the universe and that thrift-store book clearly had other plans. As he developed the script with longtime writing partner Ronald Bronstein, the film evolved into a meditation on obsession, control, anxiety and the strange drive behind people who chase dreams most others find ridiculous.

Josh Safdie explains how he and Timothée Chalamet joined forces on Marty Supreme.

The Q and A also explored the astonishing level of craftsmanship behind the movie. Safdie recounted how legendary production designer Jack Fisk, whose credits include There Will Be Blood, The Tree of Life and Killers of the Flower Moon, reconstructed entire 1950s spaces from scratch. This included detailed replicas of the long-demolished Lawrence’s table tennis parlor. Fisk even tracked down original architectural floor plans from city archives and located decades-old contact sheets that revealed the building’s true interior.

It did not stop there. Safdie insisted that every extra have a character, a backstory and a purpose. Background actors were not just bodies. They were part of the world’s psychological architecture. Even the film’s soundscape was built organically, often capturing real-time chaos at bowling alleys and table tennis matches. This was later blended with a 30-piece orchestra, a Vienna choir and inventive vaporwave-inspired compositions by musician Daniel Lopatin.

Safdie also spoke passionately about his cast. A wild mix of movie stars, icons and first-timers. Leading the film is Timothée Chalamet as Marty Mauser, surrounded by an ensemble that includes Gwyneth Paltrow, Fran Drescher, Odessa A’zion, Tyler The Creator, Kevin O’Leary, Abel Ferrara and others. Many scenes were built around performers’ real personalities, energies and essences. As Safdie said, “Casting is directing before the camera ever rolls.”

Safdie wrapped the night reflecting on filmmaking at scale, the thrill, the exhaustion and the architecture of it all. When asked whether he will continue working at this size or return to something smaller and scrappier, he admitted he did not have a concrete answer. Every story determines its own size. “You just do not know until the next dream arrives.”

As much as we would love to spill our full reaction to the movie right now, we are under embargo and cannot publish a complete review until it lifts in December. What we can say is this. Marty Supreme feels like the kind of inventive, soulful, slightly chaotic sports drama only Josh Safdie could make. Chalamet’s performance is every bit as electric as the early buzz promises. The film arrives in theaters December 20, 2025.

Grab your tickets, get ahead of the conversation and circle back with us on WeAreCritiX.com for our full review and breakdown once the embargo drops.