An assessment of the most promising filmmakers who made their directorial debuts in the 2010s would include Jordan Peele, Greta Gerwig, Ryan Coogler, Barry Jenkins, and the Safdie brothers. Inevitably, Gerwig, Jenkins, and Coogler all found themselves at the helm of blockbusters based on existing properties; Peele’s become more of a producer than a director, given that there hasn’t been any updates on the follow-up to his underrated 2022 film Nope. The Safdie brothers were the altruistic artists who were willing to engage in any medium of storytelling if it suited their interests. Although both Josh and Benny had a few acting gigs, the brothers earned the most praise for their groundbreaking work on the A24 films Good Time and Uncut Gems.
“Groundbreaking” isn’t a word used lightly, but it's justified when used to describe the ways in which the Safdies made immersive, confrontational thrillers about despicable characters. In a generation where media pundits conflate depiction with endorsement, the fact that the Safdies made two grating, realistic portraits of egocentric men driven by late-stage capitalism is a minor miracle. Beyond the fact that both Good Time and Uncut Gems benefitted from a dark sense of comic irony, the films marketed themselves based on their unusual star turns. Good Time confirmed that Robert Pattinson had graduated from being “the Twilight guy” and deserved to be taken seriously, and Uncut Gems showed that Adam Sandler was capable of giving bold, dramatic performances when separated from the lazy comedy of Happy Madison productions.
Although the division of Joel and Ethan Coen inspired similarly morose reactions, it had come after the brothers had already directed upwards of a dozen films together. There’s no telling if their decision to part ways was as amicable as they stated, but the Safdies were seen as competitors when they each announced their upcoming projects. Both directed a sports film with a major star that debuted at a fall festival before being released by A24 in the fall of 2025 with the hope of being an awards contender.
Josh’s Marty Supreme blew Benny’s The Smashing Machine out of the water. The Timothée Chalamet star vehicle is propulsive, and managed to weave in a twisted satire of the American dream into a story that went down innumerable entertaining subplots and misadventures. Chalamet’s performance, which could win him an Oscar this March, is equal parts Taxi Driver’s Travis Bickle and Animal House’s Bluto. I named Marty Supreme as the second best film of 2025, and stand by my assessment that it’ll be viewed as a contemporary classic in years to come.
Benny’s film, The Smashing Machine, is a biopic of the UFC fighter Mark Kerr, and starred Dwayne Johnson in his first “real” acting performance since Michael Bay’s Pain & Gain over a decade ago. Although Benny won the Best Director prize at the Venice Film Festival, The Smashing Machine was a commercial bust, and has only looked worse when compared to the A24 box office records set by Marty Supreme. Rather than the explosive, grandiose approach taken by his brother, Benny made a sobering study of addiction and relapse, told from the perspective of a champion who never was. Marty Supreme is one of the fastest-moving 150 minute movies in recent memory, and The Smashing Machine replicated documentary footage of the real Kerr in a manner that felt voyeuristic.
The Smashing Machine didn’t connect with the audience that saw Johnson in the Fast & Furious films that wanted big, dumb entertainment, but it was also too traditional for the younger A24 crowd who’ve taken to making bold proclamations about the production company’s stature (A24’s legions of Blue Sky followers could watch more films released before they were born). Yet, The Smashing Machine was never going to be the success that Marty Supreme was because they didn’t share the same goal; if the intention of Marty Supreme was to leave viewers pumping their fists by the time that the credits rolled, The Smashing Machine is aimed at leaving audiences exhausted and dismayed when it's wrapped up.
The irony of The Smashing Machine is that Benny used the traditional format of a cliched sports biopic to examine a destructive, unsuccessful athlete whose life was filled with missed opportunities; the granular approach to his regime and personal struggles would’ve felt more appealing had it ended with Kerr named a global champion. Instead, the film spent its 123 minutes with a pill-popping, erratic egomaniac engaged in feckless arguments with his eccentric girlfriend Dawn Staples (Emily Blunt) and feuds with international wrestling labels. When removed from the sensationalism found within sports classics like Rocky or Breaking Away, the grounded mixed-martial arts scenes in The Smashing Machine are grueling to watch.
The most interesting meta-textual read of The Smashing Machine is what it said about Johnson. Since his acting debut in The Mummy Returns, Johnson’s hyped himself as a brand, and chosen projects that contribute to his own image. Johnson feuded with his Fast & Furious co-star Vin Diesel, made contract stipulations about the number of fights he could lose onscreen, and touted his derided Christmas comedy Red One as “a strategic win” that had a “long shelf life with multiple verticals.”
The split of the Coen brothers lead to an indication of where the talent within their relationship lied; after Joel made a respectable, Oscar-nominated adaptation of The Tragedy of Macbeth with Denzel Washington, Ethan directed two obnoxious, incompetent low-stake road comedies with Drive-Away Dolls and Honey, Don’t!, the latter of which I named as one of the year’s worst films. It’s too early to characterize Benny the same way, especially when considering the great acting roles he’s had in Oppenheimer, Licorice Pizza, and Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret.