{"id":94424,"date":"2026-03-13T21:54:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T00:54:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ubirataonline.com.br\/why-marty-supreme-should-win-the-best-picture-oscar-oscars-2026\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T21:54:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T00:54:38","slug":"why-marty-supreme-should-win-the-best-picture-oscar-oscars-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ubirataonline.com.br\/en\/why-marty-supreme-should-win-the-best-picture-oscar-oscars-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Marty Supreme should win the best picture Oscar | Oscars 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

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F<\/span>irst things first: the best picture Oscar should go to Marty Supreme<\/a> for the incredible job it has done in bringing new eyes to ping pong. A declining sport that has to be propped up by subsidy, this movie has single-handedly kept wiff waff alive even though no one cares about it any more. Kudos.<\/p>\n

Next, a confession. I watched this film the day it came out and haven\u2019t seen it since*. That day also happened to be my birthday, a big birthday, and I wasn\u2019t entirely steady when I entered the cinema that evening. I have sketchy recollections of the middle section \u2013 the bit between the bath collapsing and the plane to Japan. I also didn\u2019t really like it much; I found it inconsequential and a bit amoral and I instantly resolved to forget the words to 4 Raws Remix (sample lyric: \u201cmy life is an opera\u201d) as a result.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t believe my own personal failings should undermine the argument for giving this film the gong it so obviously desires. If we\u2019re talking cinema (not marketing campaigns or merch drops, however captivating), then Josh Safdie has created a movie that has captured something of the world in 2026. Set as it may be in the 1950s, Marty Supreme could only have been made now. If we want to celebrate art that reflects the world we live in, then this is the one.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>50s New York \u2026 Tyler Okonma and Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet.<\/span> Photograph: Everett Collection Inc\/Alamy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

First, we have Marty Mauser himself. A character fizzing with \u201cunearned self-confidence\u201d (a spot-on description by Variety\u2019s Peter Debruge), Mauser sees the world entirely in terms of what he wants out of it. Despite professing an all-encompassing passion for table tennis, his attention rarely focuses on it. Instead, it flits from one possible moment of gratification to the next, and Mauser pursues his appetites with no reflection on how they might impact others. Obviously, this sounds like the current president of the United States, but it\u2019s also a bit all of us, especially the all of us that is manifested online.<\/p>\n

The rapidity and frequency with which Mauser makes his jolting moves creates an antic sense that harks back to some of the greats of Hollywood, screwball comedies like It Happened One Night or Sullivan\u2019s Travels. But it\u2019s faster and more brittle than that, every act coming with its own thud of cortisol. The sense of being about to have a cardiac arrest while watching a movie is something Safdie and his brother Benny perfected in their two masterpieces, Good Time and Uncut Gems. It\u2019s not pleasant but it\u2019s a real feeling, an intense feeling and, in all honesty, for many people it will be sometimes reminiscent of living modern life.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>\u2018Turns the familiar into its unsettling echo\u2019 \u2026 director Josh Safdie.<\/span> Photograph: Atsushi Nishijima<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The pacing and characterisation are not the only things that make this movie too much. It\u2019s the aesthetic, too. The recreated New York of the 1950s is an era many viewers will think they are familiar with, all sharp suits and dive bars (equally the London of the 50s, with its austere vibes). But Safdie, particularly through an emphasis on casting non-actors and people with, how shall I put it, unconventional Hollywood physiognomies, turns the familiar into its unsettling echo. It\u2019s an effect only enhanced in cinematography, by the nominated Darius Khondji, that leans into intense closeups as another means to disrupt and disturb.<\/p>\n

Again I put it to you that nostalgia with nightmarish undertones is something our contemporary culture is increasingly steeped in. Equally there is something thoroughly modern about the anachronistic elements of the movie. Whether it\u2019s Tears for Fears songs as musical backdrop or Mauser and Tyler Okonma\u2019s Wally ghost-riding the whip (that\u2019s getting out your car and dancing as it continues to drive), there\u2019s a cultural imposition on this historical drama; it\u2019s then, but punched up by the now.<\/p>\n

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