Martyr Supreme (#76)
The Newsletter That Was Never Considered A Threat To The Regime
Shownotes
Welcome, this is a time capsule from a world that no longer exists, which describes most movies, most media, and increasingly, most countries. Everything inside it is technically three months old (we didn’t know how good we had it). If you’re desperate for all my stale takes, most of them are fossilized on Letterboxd. Once again, I promise consistency1 moving forward, despite increasingly finding myself rationing today's news (“Cool, another headline I hate”) to delay tomorrow's.
It Was Just an Accident
2025 — Directed by Jafar Panahi
A man is convinced he’s captured the secret policeman who tortured him, and then isn’t sure if he really is his torturer. Together with a motley crew of other victims of systematic oppression, they set out to solve a dilemma of revenge and resolution. Impossible ethics, darkly comedic, with outstanding performances that carry It Was Just An Accident past a script that occasionally strains under the weight of its ideas (but I concede that the subtitling also seemed off). Panahi shot this film illegally and is currently detained. Or is he being liberated? 🥀 Iran is being bombed by people with strong ideas about dissent and freedom, while globally, abstract concepts like “regime change” are floated like they’re a simple reboot. It Was Just An Accident asks what dissent actually costs when it’s yours to pay. Feels like nobody currently debating Iranian airspace is asking that question.
★★★★ - From the category: Cool, Another Headline I Hate
Marty Supreme
2025 — Directed by Josh Safdie
Whatever you think about Marty Supreme, you have to respect the audacity of Josh Safdie looking at Timothée Chalamet and deciding to weaponize all of his most annoying traits. Instead of taming that unnervingly lanky and overbearing Willy Wonka energy, Safdie builds the entire film around it, and it… works? Sometimes?
The problem is that while in Uncut Gems, the frenzy exposed the protagonist, here it protects him. Marty is genuinely fascinating, but we are constantly bombarded by bullshit plotlines that barely hold his character together. He exists in a world of grifters, half-dreamers, trauma-soaked people who’re actively keeping him locked into a sad life, and becomes a man who lies, steals, manipulates and gambles to escape, to prove he isn’t just another casualty of circumstance. He does it for a piece of the pyramids and to bring back some honey, while everyone else is still stuck in the camps, surrounded by anti-semites and wealthy old money. He doesn’t do it particularly well, and so when Safdie - who also seems to be a unscrupulous character - says “I am Marty Supreme”, I do understand what he’s trying to say, even though it’s kinda annoying to listen to. That said: elite casting, immaculate production design, an aggressively banging '80s soundtrack lift this movie up and beyond the chaos. Although I’m not looking forward to seeing it again anytime soon, I do respect it.
★★★★ - From the category: Films That Need An Editor And A Hug
Late Shift
2025 — Directed by Petra Biondina Volpe
Awarding a full point for being exactly 👏 the 👏 right 👏 length 👏 But also: masterfully crafted, Boiling Point for hospitals / nursing. If only the dialogues had been allowed to flow a little more, but I’ll say that my copy of the film seemed weirdly overdubbed (although I watched it in German), which took me out of it frequently. Isn’t it absolutely insane that, in one of the richest countries in the world, we can’t provide adequate healthcare anymore? I guess let AI solve how to clean someone’s diarrhea or how to comfort a dying man.
★★★★ - From the category: Let Women Cook
Sentimental Value
2025 — Directed by Joachim Trier
As a daughter of a father who reserves his charms exclusively for strangers, I’m not sure I’m buying into “tortured patriarchy” propaganda anymore. Sure, fathers weren’t taught to communicate, so instead they express their love and feelings in other ways and call it “profound art“. Idk man. I guess if I had grown up in that house, and my father was a famous director, I may have been more forgiving, too. But I’m not sentimental enough to believe in the daddy redemption arc. I think me and Renate can accept that we have a lot in common with our fathers, and still refuse to let them win. and/both. See also: Aftersun, a much better movie about shitty fathers and daughters.
★★★ - From the category: Sad Dad Industrial Complex
Sirat (2025)
2025 — Directed by Oliver Laxe
I don’t know if I can add anything more to the perfectly succinct review that my beloved friend May (miss you, call me) left on Letterboxd („Enjoyed it until midpoint and then just no“), but I need to yap about Sirat again. Now that it’s going wide and it’s being considered for multiple international awards including the Oscars2, I feel like I need to tell the world about this… abomination? A visually stunning film that descends into total depravity. The only other time I’ve felt this way was when I read A Little Life.
On one hand, the film is formally a masterpiece with undeniable craft. The cinematography and the sound are gorgeous. I loved the tension created throughout the first hour. But in it’s second act, Sirat dissolves into a grueling, two-hour exercise in human suffering, and I just don’t know why we have to keep making movies like that. It’s nihilistic! Director Oliver Laxe said in an interview with the Big Picture something along the lines of “Watching Sirat is like dying”, and that was the cringiest thing I’ve ever heard. He kept padding his outrageous claim with attempts of philosophical reasoning, but I think he said what he said, except it’s not the holy fucking mystery of death, you know, the romantic, spiritually loaded part; Sirat is just the funeral. Ceremonial, sure, but Laxe is burying an empty coffin, and I’m still really mad about it.
★? - From the category: كس أمك يا ابن الكلب / Films That Owe Me An Apology / Du Hurensohn
Seeking Haven for Mr Rambo
2025 — Directed by Khaled Mansour
Got unlucky recently picking movies with pets in distress. Scientific evidence says that everything is more emotional on a flight so just know that I fucking bawled my eyes out transatlantically. The misery of an Egyptian working class man aside, Rambo is a formidable piece of cinema, with a great standout performance that really had me hypnotized despite the tragedies unfolding. Top dog acting, too. A few cliches, but nothing that wasn’t offset by the reality in which the film is grounded, and by the incredible lighting and composition of every frame. The dog is fine but I’m not.
★★★★ - From the category: Economy Class Cinema
Industry (HBO — Season 4)
I had basically given up on Industry after season three. There didn’t seem to be much left to return to with Pierpoint gone. And yet Mickey Down and Konrad Kay somehow reinvented the series without losing its frivolous, chaotic core. Using the Wirecard scandal as the skeleton of the season is outrageous and brilliant. Letting Yasmin lean into full Ghislaine Maxwell territory gave the show the villain it needed after riding Harper into the depths of evil for three seasons. And Kit Harington as Henry Muck is outstanding! The second episode, essentially a bottle episode of him battling his ghosts, had genuine hand-over-mouth moments. “Cock breath” and “We had a very bohemian childhood” is so wild 💀 All in all, I was really impressed. If this is the runway into a final fifth season, I’m very ready to see how they land it.
Heated Rivalry (HBO Max)
I’ve thought long and hard about how to phrase this without hurting anyone’s feelings - many of my loved ones have become obscenely obsessed with Heated Rivalry - but the most concise way I can put it is: I just don’t care about this series. It’s well produced and obviously it has its charms, but watching the first couple of episodes, I felt as if I’m wading through someone’s Wattpad of gay hockey fan fiction. However it also brought back fond memories of my time working at the video store. One of the most popular porn series’ back then was “SG4GE”. It was “straight” porn, but it featured buff, hot men and long lingering shots on their most prominent features. Not many customers knew that SG4GE actually stood for Straight Guys 4 Gay Eyes. But I knew. Men are idiots.
Leftovers
After 25 years, Wikipedia has proved that news doesn’t need to look like news
Steal (Amazon Prime) — I’m glad to see all our favorite Game of Thrones alumnis thriving in the despicable world of modern British finance. This was alright! Quick weeknight binge.
DTF St Louis (HBO) — Patrick Bateman could read a Lidl receipt to me and I’d enjoy the show, but HBO’s new murder crime mystery is quite promising (despite the weird tonal fluctuations).
A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms (HBO Max) — I almost didn’t continue watching the series because it struck a really annoying tone in the first episode, but I’m really, really impressed with how they are shaping out the world of Game of Thrones on the smallest scale. It’s a smart and contained world, 35 minute episodes, fantastic film-making. A reminder of how great the source material is.
Scrubs (ABC) — Returns?! And apart from the veneers (we’ve strayed so far from God’s light), it’s exactly how we left it. Quite the unexpected and - so far - successful comeback.
Would I be as much into movies if I didn’t have my own community for it? I think so, but having Letterboxd really helps my own internal discourse. Here’s a great write-up on the NYT about the hype and the review culture on the app.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple — J’adore, bitch. I’m queasy about gore but this had more emotionally captivating moments than most dramas I’ve seen last year. Damn good filmmaking.
The Pitt (HBO Max) — After spending the better part of a year rewatching ER, the second season of The Pitt feels like stepping from 2D into 3D. But something isn’t fully clicking. The “one shift, slow-burn chaos” structure is so consistent that you start to see the scaffolding. There was an effect to the novelty format, and now we’re just waiting for the next dramatic climax. It’s still elite level television, so no complaints here. Dana forever.
Is This Thing On? — Didn’t fully love it but it was fine, and an almost perfect depiction of trying to separate (it’s either that or polygamy, suck it up).
Pillion — I could not stop thinking about my friend Josie‘s mom, who asked me at a Christmas party if I’d seen Pillion. Little did I know she was trying to warn me when she followed up with a very British and astute observation that „this wasn’t quite the romantic comedy she expected“. Apparently they’d all gone together as a family. I honestly would have shot myself in the head if I’d seen this with my mom, but right now I’m just dying with laughter at her recap. Josie’s mom, you’re a real one. May you never choose the wrong movie again! (Really good movie about shitty relationships, and a standout debut)
The Housemaid — Gone Girl for dummies with really bad taste in horrible interior design so basically I love it
Love Story (FX) — I didn’t even know about Carolyn Bessette until I randomly put on this new Ryan Murphy series! Why did nobody tell me about her! Is the show good? Not even remotely. Hannah Darryl is played so wretchedly I honestly think she should sue, and the script is hilarious in a deeply sad-for-literature kind of way. But the 90s, man. The 90s.
Part of me wonders if I should just rebrand entirely. Pivot. Expand the universe. Possible new verticals include:
Hotel Rooms (a sensory anthropology)
Very Low Protein Snacks (a memoir)
The Economics of Vice: A Study in Why I’m Broke While They’re Doing Coke
It was being considered, but I started writing the newsletter decades ago and so now let me tell you, Sirat didn’t make it.