For It Is Man's Number: abel ferrara

Showing posts with label abel ferrara. Show all posts

Tuesday, 24 February 2026

Marty Supreme (2025)

I saw many people mention Marty Supreme as a film in a similar vein to Uncut Gems. I would disagree. I think it's actually more in line with Inside Llewyn Davis. While not looking at grief in the way that film does, it gives us a central character who keeps making himself into the biggest obstacle to his potential success.

Timothée Chalamet plays Marty Mauser, a young man who fancies himself as the world greatest table tennis player. Nobody else really thinks there's a future in that though, and very few people view it as a sport. Marty cannot really afford the life of a dedicated sportsman, which is why he spends some of his time hustling others with his friend, Wally (Tyler Okonma AKA Tyler The Creator). He also spends some of his time being far too intimate with the married Rachel (Odessa A'zion), but ends up in the orbit of an actress searching for a comeback (Kay Stone, played by Gwyneth Paltrow), her rich husband (Milton Rockwell, played by Kevin O'Leary), and a gangster (Abel Ferrara) with a stash of cash and a need for someone to temporarily care for his dog.

Directed by Josh Safdie, who also co-wrote the screenplay with regular collaborator Ronald Bronstein, this manages to play fast and loose within the confines of the sports movie structure, yet also give viewers something that hits a couple of very familiar beats. Based loosely on the real-life Marty Reisman, this keeps us alongside someone strangely captivating, despite being so selfish and loathsome, in a 1950s world accompanied by an enjoyably anachronistic soundtrack (although I was very dissappointed that "Just A Song About Ping Pong" wasn't used). While things go from bad to worse for Marty, he's so consistently self-destructive that any potential bad end feels absolutely expected, and even slightly deserved, removing some of the tension that would otherwise be thrumming throughout every scene.

Chalamet is absolutely superb in the main role, giving an impressively vanity-free performance that sees him playing the lousiest character he's yet played onscreen (and, let's not forget, he played a damn cannibal in one of his previous features). A'zion is also very good, and does well in her scenes with Chalamet to make you believe that she sees something in him that others may miss. Paltrow and O'Leary are both excellent, and both get scenes that allow them to steal the spotlight away from our main character for at least a moment or two, and Okonma excels in his supporting role. Ferrara is a lot of fun, being as mean and dangerous as can be, and there are also damn fine performances from Larry Ratso Sloman, Fran Drescher (who I wish had been in it for a bit longer), Isaac Simon, Penn Jillette, Luke Manley, and Koto Kawaguchi.

There's an excellent score from Daniel Lopatin, great production design throughout that keeps you grounded in 1950s New York (despite those soundtrack choices), and a necessarily impressive display of table tennis in a few main sequences. Some will find it insufferable, because of Marty being so insufferable, but I hope that most will find it as compelling and entertaining as I did. I may not rush to rewatch it, but I AM still thinking about some key moments that won't be leaving my memory any time soon. The fact that the tension feels slightly less palpable, undercut by the personality of Marty, actually makes it a more enjoyable viewing experience than it otherwise would have been.

Oh, and it may have one of the best opening credit sequences of all time.

9/10

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Friday, 22 April 2022

Body Snatchers (1993)

Although not his usual kind of film, and it's unsurprising to see that this was originally due to be directed by one of the co-writers (Stuart Gordon, who I think would have also done a great job), director Abel Ferrara finds himself well-matched to the classic alien invasion story represented here, helped by the fact that the setting is now an army base, instead of any standard town or city.

Gabrielle Anwar plays Marti Malone, a young woman who has just arrived at another temporary home with her family, made up of her mother, Carol (Meg Tilly), her father, Steve (Terry Kinney), and a little brother named Andy (Reilly Murphy). Keen to have some fun, Marti soon ends up in trouble, but that's nothing compared to the trouble that she could be in if she becomes replicated by some alien invaders. Because if you're going to replicate humans without finding a way to ensure they also have access to emotions, there are few better places to do that than an army base.

Based on the Jack Finney story, reworked by a couple of people updating the premise (including Larry Cohen), the script here is finalised by Gordon, Dennis Paoli, and Nicholas St. John, and it's a 1993 movie that, for better or worse, feels like an '80s movie. There are some great practical effects throughout, there's a younger lead character than we have in any other film adaptation (up to this point), and the pacing helps the 87-minute runtime just fly by. There are also one or two moments that stand out for the wrong reasons, one showing the fate of a character that maybe should have been edited around the limitations of the time, but it's generally all working to an impressively high standard.

Ferrara handles the whole concept well, and he can build tension and craft scares so well that it makes you regret the fact that he didn't give us some more "straightforward" horror movies throughout the '80s and '90s. Maybe most movies coming under that genre umbrella wouldn't appeal to him as much as the premise here. After all, Ferrara has always tended to feel like an outsider, an uncompromising individual who would never make life easier for himself if it meant giving up something that he felt was intertwined with his DNA. If there’s any surprise here it is the fact that it took so long until Ferrara decided to work with this material.

Cast-wise, this is full of treats. Anwar is an appealing lead, a young star who never seemed to get the BIG role that would put her on a higher status level, and she works well alongside Billy Wirth, who plays a soldier/ally/believer ready to help humanity survive. And Christine Elise fans will enjoy her work here, despite her limited screentime. Murphy is a decent little brother, a more vulnerable character who manages not to be too clingy or annoying. Kinney may be the least of the adult stars, simply due to his character being the blandest, but there are many treats elsewhere, from the sly menace of Meg Tilly (who has long been a favourite of mine) to the standard stern military officer role for R. Lee Ermey. There’s also an enjoyable little turn from Forest Whitaker, another individual on the army base who starts to suspect that something strange is going on, and plans to avoid the fate of so many others.

Sadly all too often forgotten in favour of the previous films based on the Finney tale, Body Snatchers actually earns a place alongside both the 1956 and 1978 movies. It reworks things without trying to change it into something too far removed from the source material, has some nice scenes of gloopy terror, pairs up the visuals with a fine score from Joe Delia, and generally deserves to be better known than it is. It’s top-tier Ferrara, it’s just a step aside from most other movies that Ferrara has preferred to give viewers throughout most of his directorial career.

8/10