Director: Josh Safdie
Cast: Timothée Chalamet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A’zion, Kevin O’Leary
Have I Seen It Before: Nope.
Did I Like It: I missed—and continue missing—the whole Uncut Gems (2019) thing, so there’s a part of me that felt like I missed the beginning of the Safdie party.
So I didn’t know what was getting into. I was probably going to be annoyed by Paltrow and Chalamet, who have annoyed me in the past*.
And as such, it winds up being the perfect vehicle for them. Their characters might be the worst people who were ever imagined. They are generally surrounded by a series of equally terrible people, except for Koto Endo (Koto Kawaguchi), who is perfect pure, and in a simpler time would have warranted a film all his own. This terrible-by-design quality makes the ever-increasing series of awful events that befall them at least mildly satisfying. Its a well-shot, well-cast film that never makes me dis-believe its early-1950s setting. If somebody were to put this film above Sinners (2025) as their favorite movie of the year, I wouldn’t judge them too terribly harshly in their fundamental incorrectness.
But that miles of established behavior also makes the ending, where Marty’s (Chalamet) heart suddenly grows several sizes and he is moved to absolute tears by the fact that the child he denied the entire film winds up getting birthed. What am I supposed to feel at the end of the movie? Marty’s a good person now? He’s going to be a good father and husband, or even a somewhat competent one? Will he never pick up a ping-pong paddle again? Will he ever be able to make a dime doing anything? Will he spend the rest of his life in prison? All are possible, some are even plausible. I enjoyed the ride, but I still feel like everyone’s getting off a little light in a world that easily lets people off lightly.
*They don’t annoy me like Jared Leto annoys me, so don’t get too excited.