I’m so glad I watched this just a few days after seeing Glengarry Glen Ross for the first time. There’s no better superstar in 2025 than Timothee Chalamet to reinforce the aforementioned film’s insistence that acting is performance is salesmanship. 

Chalamet’s devotion to his role is both parts ironic, as demonstrated by the 20-minute long faux marketing meeting released by A24 in which he gives a fantastic comedic performance, and sincere, with the understanding that he really does want to be one of the greats.

The casting is doubly brilliant because it’s clear from interviews that Chalamet (despite his ridiculously old-money sounding name) has a natural scheming, striver-ly streak to him, with the clearest example being the modded Xbox controller bustiness he claimed to run as a tween. We all knew kids like this growing up; they were flipping sneakers or trading crypto or selling candy, whatever it took to make a buck. It is this entrepreneurial spirit that is often associated with the American postwar boom period that backgrounds Marty Supreme, with the nation transforming into the hegemon for a new globalized modernity. 

Of course, as Josh Safdie demonstrates over the course of two and a half incredibly kinetic hours, this is an implicitly dishonest and narcissistic mindset at its core. In a similar dynamic to America’s endless imperial globe-trotting since WWII, Marty spins a new lie to wriggle out of the consequences of the last one he told, consequences be damned. It’s all excused with the self-justification of the “greater purpose” of the subject, and this drive does not spare the innocents in its way, even in the form of a pregnant woman who can’t even be afforded the dignity of acknowledgment from her child’s father.

Despite this, it’s hard not to root for Marty Mauser; he’s one of the “little guys” who stops at nothing to achieve his goal. When he’s faced with the condescension and spite of the ruling class (Kevin O’Leary is another absolutely perfect casting choice), he’s defiant and self-assured, at least until he’s at his most desperate. Still, even after experiencing incredible demoralization at the hands of Rockwell, Marty’s final performance is a testament to the fact that he poses a massive threat to these millionaire bigwigs solely due to his charismatic ability to excite a crowd of Japanese and Americans alike. He sneers in the face of a literal self-proclaimed “vampire who’s been around since 1601,” or in other words, the same year the Dutch East India Company was formed. 

This should not be confused with the idea that Marty is a revolutionary hero, however— his consistent neglect for those around them and his fixation on fame and power prevent him from ever acting altruistically. He is instead indicative of just one of the many necessary traits for changing the world: having the confidence and motivation to just go out and do something. Buried underneath a thick layer of shit made up of Instagram chuds selling day-trading courses and used car salesman sweet-talking a single mother into 35% APR, there exists some idea of agency and self-determination that must be harnessed alongside a coherent understanding of the true mechanisms of power to create a new future. The latter is found in spades amongst the intellectual class but the former is a much rarer thing; to understand that is to appreciate the dialectical nature of change.

Watched 12/26/2025