It was a particularly busy week in the 2025-2026 Oscars season, and there weren’t even any precursor awards. The back half of the New York Film Festival delivered a secret screening of a solid Academy Award contender, the box office smacked down a Venice Film Festival award winner, and two major contenders in the acting fields up and switched their categories. The pace of October so far makes me feel like I’m in some kind of Safdie movie. More specifically, some kind of Josh Safdie movie.

We’ll get to Marty Supreme . But first, The Smashing Machine . With an opening-weekend tally of just over $6 million, Benny Safdie’s Dwayne Johnson–starring movie was a disappointment. Whether you chalk that up to the last-minute entry of Taylor Swift into movie theaters or surprise t

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