What to read next if Marty Supreme was your favorite movie of 2025.

As we slouch into awards season, this Letterboxer is reflecting on the best flicks of 2025. And every good list deserves another.

For the next few Fridays, you can watch this space for a tailored recommendation based on your favorite film of last year. To kick things off, I thought we could start with a Safdie.

This year in movies brought us a preponderance of Thwarted Dads on the make. Marty Supreme, the eponymous hero of Josh Safdie’s stress-inducing ping pong odyssey, is one such.

Whether you are generally Chalamet-pilled or just a fan of that sweaty little mustache, I suspect that if you loved this movie, you also love 1) a high-octane premise, 2) mid-century city hijinks, and 3) a morally compromised protagonist. Assuming my brilliance, here are two novels to add to your personal pile.

Colson Whitehead, Harlem Shuffle

This snack of a novel also follows a salesman with a side hustle around mid-century New York. Though Ray Carney (protagonist) does not have a dream so big and specific as Marty’s, he does have his same ambivalent relation to law, and will to own a corner of the sky.

This book kicks off with a heist in Harlem and ends with a riot. Considering its scope, setting, and nutty pantheon of bit players, Supreme fans should take note.

Merriam Modell (aka Evelyn Piper), Bunny Lake is Missing

Otto Preminger adapted this thriller in 1965, which should tell you something about its trippy potential. (Daniel Lopatin fans: The Zombies wrote the movie soundtrack.) In its novel form, this relentless day in the life follows a young mother on a quest to recover her kidnapped child. But did the child exist in the first place? Eerie and action-packed, this one shares spiritual DNA with Mr. Supreme. We’ve got suspense, antics, and a scene-y New York underbelly.

Funnest fact? You’ll be glad for the excuse to meet the under-canonized Piper/Modell, pulpy feminist chronicler of the domestic horror.

Good luck come Oscars day, Timmy-heads. May the best baller win!

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