Again in 2019, Benny and Josh Safdie unleashed Uncut Gems, an electrifying, stress-inducing thriller that made audiences see Adam Sandler in a special mild due to his portrayal of Howard Ratner, one of many decade’s most unforgettable characters. It felt just like the arrival of a brand new directing duo to rival the Coen Brothers. Nevertheless, since then, very similar to the Coens, the filmmaker siblings have chosen to go their separate methods creatively, and now Benny is explaining why.
In a brand new interview selling his 2025 film launch with Empire, Benny Safdie addressed why he and his brother Josh determined to pursue separate initiatives after the success of Uncut Gems. The director defined that the choice wasn’t the results of a falling out, however slightly a pure development of their careers. He expounded:
We had began out making films individually, in faculty. After which we had been all the time working in the direction of one thing, and after we reached that place it was nearly like, ‘Oh, nicely, what now?’
The Good Time co-director went on to say that, with no clear subsequent step mapped out, every brother adopted his personal inventive pursuits. The filmmaker continued:
Then it was like, ‘I’m on this,’ and, ‘I’m on this,’ and you then need to determine that out. It simply felt like a continuation of a course of.
The result’s two extremely anticipated Safdie initiatives arriving inside months of one another. Benny has stepped behind the digital camera for the upcoming The Smashing Machine, the place he has directed Dwayne Johnson in what’s shaping as much as be one among his most transformative performances but.
In the meantime, Josh has been engaged on the upcoming A24 film Marty Supreme, a movie a few ping-pong champion starring Timothée Chalamet. Whereas that seems like not essentially the most thrilling of premises, the flick appears much more intense based mostly on the trailer than I might have anticipated.
The Heaven Is aware of What filmmakers aren’t the primary acclaimed sibling administrators to pursue separate paths. The Wachowskis, the Farrelly brothers, and most just lately the Coens all made headlines once they stopped co-directing. Most notably after The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, followers had been left questioning why the Coen Brothers ended their decades-long run of iconic collaborations like Fargo and No Nation for Previous Males. In every case, the break up wasn’t about battle however about exploring new inventive instructions individually.
Even whereas working individually, the Safdies’ movies nonetheless carry the identical DNA. Benny in contrast their inventive course of to remedy, describing filmmaking as a manner of laying all of your ideas and feelings on the desk, analyzing them, after which placing them again collectively. He recalled a metaphor from a therapist:
The best way they deal with most cancers is that they take the blood out of the physique, run it via this machine that blasts it with radiation, after which it goes again in your physique — and that’s what we’re doing right here. We’re taking your entire ideas and emotions and placing it out on the desk. We’re taking a look at it, seeing issues, acknowledging issues, after which we’re placing it proper again in. That’s a fairly good description of what films do.
The break up between the filmmaking brothers could appear adverse to their followers. Nevertheless, there is not any want to fret. For audiences, this separation means much more storytelling from the Safdies, which is definitely one thing to stay up for.
Benny’s The Smashing Machine arrives in theaters on October 3, whereas Josh’s Marty Supreme is anticipated on December 25. The frantic rush of Uncut Gems could also be behind them, however the Safdie brothers are nonetheless shifting full pace forward, simply on completely different tracks.