Marty Supreme (2025) directed and co-written by Josh Safdie is a movie about the 1950s American dream. The movie is losely based on the life of Marty Reisman, a professional tennis player. Marty was also a child of Ashkanazi Jew immigrants that had settled in New York’s Lower East Side.
Marty is employed at his uncle’s shoe store where they also have big dreams for him — to become the shoe store manager. But Marty is above that. Marty is off to the table tennis big leagues. For most immigrant families, owning and running a business in the United States is the American Dream, but the defnition of the American dream shifts between generations often creating a lot of friction between parents and their children.
A big part of the plot revolves around Marty convincing his parents that he doesn’t want to be a shoe store manager. In this video I explore the dynamics that a lot of first generation Americans face just like Marty did.
