Something strange happens every time indie behemoth A24 announces a new film. The news ripples out, and all the culture vultures come crawling. First, chronically online Brooklyn men post breathlessly about whatever the project is—the casting, the financing, where it’s being shot—and then come the takes from the New York media types, including dissections of everything from costuming to set dressing to historical accuracy. Then the viral marketing begins. All of these phenomena have reached their peak in the circus that has become Marty Supreme.
Here are some of the things that happened during the film’s promotional run over the last few weeks (though honestly, it feels more like years). There was an “underground” Ping-Pong tournament hosted by Airbnb, and an orange blimp floating around Los Angeles. Timothée Chalamet has been running around the world—from New York to London to São Paulo—doing interviews in bright orange outfits, with a phalanx of men with massive Ping-Pong ball helmets behind him. He stood atop the Sphere in Las Vegas to shout about the movie. He played himself in a fake marketing meeting that was “leaked” on YouTube, and he even found the time to star in a British rapper’s music video. A star-spangled promotional windbreaker for the movie has been treated like the Shroud of Turin on the secondary market. There has been so much shtick that it’s been hard to keep up.
