A24 is that great little indie studio behind a lot of our favorite hits in recent years, like Lady Bird and Talk to Me and Hereditary, Moonlight, and Everything Everywhere All at Once, the production budgets of which were probably less than $70 million combined. But A24 got a taste of mid-budget success earlier this year with Civil War (Civil War, my ass: America just rolled over for fascism), a $50 million film that went on to earn $126 million globally at the box office.
A24 is also the studio behind Uncut Gems, a modest box-office hit and critically beloved film from the Safdie Brothers. A24 figured in the Safdies that they had two aces, so they decided to split their hand and give them each $70 million or so to place their bets. Benny Safdie chose to take his stake and make The Smashing Machine with Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt, about the story of mixed martial arts and UFC champion Mark Kerr. That seems like a safe bet.
Josh Safdie, on the other hand, took his $70 million (and some say as much as $90 million) and … decided to make a ping-pong movie. What are we doing here, folks? This is what we’re doing now? We’re spending $70 million on the worst part of Forrest Gump? From Deadline:
The original screenplay written by Safdie and Ronald Bronstein is based loosely on Marty Reisman’s life, set in the world of 1950s ping-pong culture. Reisman was known to be unconventional in the sport, yet won two U.S. Men’s Singles Championships in 1958 and 1960 and more than 20 international and national titles. He became famous for mastering the hardbat style, a traditional style of table tennis that uses a racket without a sponge layer to emphasize control and spin over speed and power. His mastery of the sport earned him a reputation as one of table tennis’ last greats of that era.
Oh, I stand corrected. No one told me this movie was about Marty effin’ Reisman! You mean, THE Marty Reisman?
Wait? Who the hell is Marty Reisman and why should I care about the hardbat style? Do they really want me to spend $15 to sit for two hours in a theater watching Timothée Chalamet knock around a ping-pong ball using a racket without a sponge layer? And they’re envisioning this as “as a fast-paced, globetrotting adventure-comedy in the vein of Wolf of Wall Street”? Is this a joke? Is Chalamet going to bounce ping-pong balls off of Margot Robbie’s heels? And they’re trying to sell Gwyneth Paltrow’s return to acting for the first time in five years as a selling point? In what goddamn timeline did we wake up to this morning?
The movie is called Marty Supreme, it has nothing to do with Marty Scorsese, and Chalamet has a shitty mustache and wears pleated pants. And they spent $70 goddamn million.
You’re damn right I’m going to watch it.