Tag Archives: Emory Cohen

2025 Films, Abel Ferrara, Comedy, Drama, Emory Cohen, Fran Drescher, Gywneth Paltrow, Josh Safdie, Kevin O'Leary, Odessa A'zion, Sandra Bernhard, Sports, Timothée Chalamet, Tyler Okonma

Marty Supreme-2025

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Marty Supreme-2025

Director Josh Safdie

Starring Timothée Chalamet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A’Zion

Scott’s Review #1,519

Reviewed February 19, 2026

Grade: A

At a mere thirty years old, Timothée Chalamet has already amassed some terrific film roles in Call Me By Your Name (2017), Wonka (2023), and A Complete Unknown (2024).

Portraying unique and offbeat characters is his sweet spot. 

Playing Marty Mauser in the film Marty Supreme (2025) is his best performance to date. He seamlessly turns a character the audience should dislike into an instant fan favorite who we laugh with, cry with, and root for to overcome life obstacles.

He is a nobody who desperately wants to be a somebody.

While Chalamet leads the charge, he is aided by strong supporting performances from Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A’zion, Kevin O’Leary, and Fran Drescher as characters who weave into Marty’s web of adventures.

Even actors appearing in only a few scenes are flawlessly cast, providing an authentic look at working-class and affluent white Jewish people in New York at the time.  A racial harmony is also set by including a handful of black characters as dear friends of Marty’s.

Set in 1950s New York City, Marty is a young man with a dream of becoming the world’s best table tennis player, despite setbacks and a lack of respect for the sport.

With a needy mother (Drescher), two different on again off again girlfriends who are both married, one a childhood buddy and one twice his age (A’zion and Paltrow), a pathway to a dull career as a shoe salesman, and a tumultuous relationship with a successful businessman (played by Kevin O’Leary), the cards in life are stacked against him.

Yet, Marty consistently manipulates his way to a free trip to London and Tokyo, and several get-rich-quick schemes to get what he wants and to fulfill his lifelong dream.

Acting is only a part of the overall success of Marty Supreme. Thanks to Josh Safdie’s (Good Time, 2017; Uncut Gems, 2019) superior direction, all technical capabilities are flawlessly executed, and an unpredictable story is achieved.

The pacing is quick and organized, leaving never a dull moment in nonstop Marty adventures. Sequences like the search for a lost dog portray perilous moments of danger as the dog becomes a more prominent character than expected.

The editing is superior, making the fast-paced table tennis sequences both thrilling and exhausting. The quick dialogue, whether during phone conversations, in a dusty theater, or in an exquisite hotel room, all add up to a tight package of filmmaking.

Finally, the costumes and art direction more than adequately showcase a period when a few Americans were affluent. At the same time, the rest struggled to make ends meet while pursuing their own version of the American dream.

I’ve been a fan of Safdie since he was an up-and-comer making the independent film Good Time with his brother Benny, and he has since come into his own with the grizzled crime thriller Uncut Gems starring Adam Sandler.

Seeming to enjoy the New York setting in his films, just like director Paul Thomas Anderson prefers sunny California, he is steadily making his films highly recognizable.

Continuing on the theme of good film balance, Safdie incorporates naughty scenes like Marty’s humiliating bare bottom spanking in front of snickering businessmen, and a daring scene where he goes down on an aging film actress (Paltrow) in Central Park.

This ensures some humor is present.

The haves and have-nots support Marty’s journey. Wanting more than the life his depressed mother or shady friends have, Marty aspires to be in the big leagues. He will lie, cheat, or steal from whomever he needs to to achieve this.

And yet, Marty is kindhearted and humorous in his pursuits. He giggles when he can lounge in a lavish hotel and order room service or shmooze among rich theater types at a grandiose party.

Class distinctions are an important part of the character’s motivation for a better life.

Deservedly recognized with many awards-season accolades, Marty Supreme (2025) is an example of a young director coming into his own, with ample resources to make a gem of a film.

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture, Best Director-Josh Safdie, Best Actor-Timothée Chalamet, Best Original Screenplay, Best Casting, Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, Best Editing, Best Costume Design

2024 Films, Austin Butler, Boyd Holbrook, Crime Drama, Drama, Emory Cohen, Jeff Nichols, Jodie Comer, Michael Shannon, Mike Faist, Norman Reedus, Paul Sparks, Tom Hardy

The Bikeriders-2024

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The Bikeriders-2024

Director Jeff Nichols

Starring Austin Butler, Jodie Comer, Tom Hardy

Scott’s Review #1,431

Reviewed July 1, 2024

Grade: A-

The Bikeriders (2024) immediately informs the audience of the time and place the film will be told. A dry and dusty midwestern USA between 1965-1973 is the window explored and the defiance of the characters drawn.

This period is the Vietnam War, Civil Rights, assassinations, Woodstock, and many other historical moments. Dangerous, the culture and people were changing and very rebellious.

Director Jeff Nichols, who also wrote the screenplay based on ‘The Bikeriders’ by Danny Lyon, wonderfully presents a time capsule of a group of bikers who forged their subculture away from the uncertainty of the rest of the world.

After a chance encounter at a local biker bar, strong-willed Kathy (Jodie Comer) is drawn to handsome and mysterious Benny (Austin Butler), the newest member of the Midwestern motorcycle club, the Vandals, led by the enigmatic Johnny (Tom Hardy).

Much like the country around it, the club changes with time, transforming from an essential gathering place for local outsiders into an underworld of violence. This forces Benny to choose between Kathy and his loyalty to the club.

The most vital parts of The Bikeriders are the beginning and end, with portions in the middle section, making it drag and lowering a potential ‘A’ rating to an ‘A-.’

But the other sections are so rich with characterization and events that they usurp the dull parts.

Nichols, who has also directed Take Shelter (2011), Mud (2012), and Loving (2016), likes to focus on the decade of the 1960s in America with conflicted characters. He likes to work with Michael Shannon, who has a small yet pivotal role as a man who ponders life.

We meet Benny in a bar, where he sips a drink. Two local thugs hastily tell him to remove his biker jacket. After a bloody fight in the parking lot, we realize how much the biker club means to him and what it symbolizes.

It’s a club where the vermin, weirdos, undesirables, and those cast aside by society find a place and are cared for by one another. That is until the years pass and things change by meaner and less loyal bikers.

The symbolism resonates with all because time never stands still, and good things always come to an end.

The Bikeriders is told from Kathy’s perspective through interviews with her friend Danny (Mike Faist). He is the real-life author of the book on which the film is based.

Comer is outstanding in the lead female role. She is strong and resilient, attracted to the dangerous lifestyle and the bikers, but only has eyes for Benny and will not be taken advantage of.

She chronicles specific events like fights, death, and rape in painful yet thoughtful detail, inviting the audience into her dark world.

Butler and Hardy are also terrific. Arguably co-leads, Butler’s Benny is childless and more accessible than Hardy’s Johnny, a family man. Johnny sees Benny as the next leader of the Vipers, but Benny wants none of that.

Comparisons to the club and life outside the club torture both men. During a long homoerotic scene, Johnny and Benny are dangerously close to kissing as Johnny discloses the reasons why Benny should lead the club.

The scene is smoldering as the unspoken connection can be felt in raw form. Nichols doesn’t dare to make the film into anything LGBTQ+ related, but the nuances and subtleties exist.

Besides the acting, the gritty environment oozes with richness. The soiled biker bars, sticky floors laden with blood, beer, and vomit, emit from the silver screen.

You can almost smell the environment.

The bad teeth, foul language, and tacky Midwestern accents all portray the loneliness of these characters and their clinging to the club for dear life.

Nichols and the author Lyon depict a fresh look into the world of motorcyclists and the culture they lived and died in for a brief time. The Bikeriders (2024) presents violence mixed with brotherhood and loyalty, which is fascinating to watch.

2015 Films, Domhnall Gleeson, Drama, Emory Cohen, Fiona Glascott, Jane Brennan, Jim Broadbent, John Crowley, Julie Walters, Period Drama, Romantic Drama, Saoirse Ronan

Brooklyn-2015

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Brooklyn-2015

Director John Crowley

Starring Saoirse Ronan

Scott’s Review #298

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Reviewed December 12, 2015

Grade: A

Brooklyn (2015) is a classic-style Hollywood film that I adored watching. It has a genuine innocence to it with wonderful, powerful acting and perfect cinematography/art direction.

The film is conventional and mainstream, but never sappy.

Based on Colm Toubin’s popular novel, Brooklyn takes place in the early 1950s and is set in Ireland and New York City.

Eilis Lacey, played by Saoirse Ronan, is a young Irish girl with good morals and traditional values. She is faithful and Catholic, with a good upbringing. Not rich by any means, she is intelligent and uses good sense, working hard on weekends in a grocery run by an unkind woman, to save money.

Thankfully, her older sister Rose, whom Eilis adores, has scrimped and saved enough for her to study in the United States, via a church program. Rose does not want Eilis to be trapped in the small Irish town.

While in New York City, an event occurs that necessitates Eilis’s return to Ireland. While home she develops a romantic dilemma that causes her to ponder whether to return to her new life in New York City or stay in Ireland.

Eilis is conflicted, which is the main focus of the story.

On paper, one might assume that Brooklyn is sappy, “chick flick” or a trite romance with predictability for miles- it isn’t. Everything about the film is perfect and is very detail-oriented.  The pieces somehow fit together- good direction, good camerawork, good acting, and good story-telling.

Throughout the film, I found myself in an emotional state.

When Eilis meets the young and charming Tony, a working-class Italian American, who becomes infatuated with her, I worried how their different backgrounds will be handled. Their courtship is sweet and tender and I cheered for them as their slow romance builds.

She is taught to eat pasta correctly to impress his traditional parents. He walks her home every night. Tony and Eilis have a sweetness and purity that is tough not to fall in love with as an onlooker.

On the other hand, when dramatic events unfold, the excellent acting makes Brooklyn a delight and quite emotionally powerful. One might find themselves in a flood of tears by the end.

Thanks to Ronan, an impressive talent since my discovery of her work in 2007’s Atonement, she elicits in Eilis a strength and stoicism that is tested when she breaks down at one point in the film.

Important to mention is the awe-inspiring performances by Fiona Glascott as Eilis’s sister Rose, and Jane Brennan as Eilis’s mother.

Unknown actresses (to me), both give dramatic and dynamic performances in their respective roles.

Wonderful to see are veteran character actors Jim Broadbent and Julie Walters as Father Flood and Madge, respectively.

What a visual treat Brooklyn is! As the title reveals, most of the action does take place in this New York City borough, and the influx of Irish and Italian immigrants during this period of history is apparent in the clothing and the cinematography.

The lush green and vast landscape of Ireland makes this divine to view.

A story of bravery, romance, and kindness, Brooklyn (2015) is a wholesome and feel-good film, but, I was immersed in the story and the look of the film from the very first shot.

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture, Best Actress-Saoirse Ronan, Best Adapted Screenplay