In New York City during the 1950s, Marty Supreme (played by Timothée Chalamet) wants to be the greatest table tennis player of all time and will stop at nothing to see it come true. After suffering a definitive loss at the British Open to Koto Endo (played by Koto Kawaguchi), a deaf Japanese player who becomes a sensation back in his home country, Marty refuses to accept defeat and demands another chance at the upcoming World Championships in Tokyo, but he’ll have to get there personally as, after declining to take part in an embarrassing exhibition match offered to him by pen magnate Milton Rockwell (played by Kevin O’Leary), no one is willing to give him a hand-out. Determined to get the money required for a plane ticket, Marty stoops to all kinds of lows to achieve his goal, including sleeping with Milton’s wife, retired actress Kay (played by Gwyneth Paltrow), going hustling with his taxi driver friend, Wally (played by Tyler Okonma) and bringing his childhood friend and romantic fling, Rachel (played by Odessa A‘Zion) on several dangerous ploys while simultaneously refusing to accept that he got her pregnant. Tripping over person after person in order to get his ego stroked, Marty Supreme will be forced to face his imperfections before he ever deserves the chance to play another round.
Considered one of the best films as well as one of the best leading performances of the year, MARTY SUPREME is a bold, unapologetically brash and unconventional take on a sports feature, going hard on its insane atmosphere, sparky dialogue and characters, intense performances, and a very authentic environment and aesthetic that’s swiftly counteracted by the frenetic directing style and narrative direction. While a little too high on its own insanity for any of its narrative or character arcs to feel fulfilling, it’s an experience that won’t be easily forgotten.
Despite the fact that the film was distributed by A24 (a production company known for quality material that favours low-budgeted flicks that think outside the norm) and tells a mostly made-up story focused around such a random sport like table tennis with only a smidge of reality involved (with the fictitious Marty Supreme only being loosely based on the real life American table tennis player, Marty Reisman), MARTY SUPREME was being marketed like it was the next big thing. With Chalamet helping to produce and advertise the film, and director, Josh Safdie, trying to reclaim the chaotic energy and captivation of Uncut Gems (which he helped direct in 2019 with his brother, Benny Safdie), through a similarly spirited and hectic presentation, atmosphere and performing style, it seemed like MARTY SUPREME was a vehicle for two overly-passionate creatives to express themselves in as wild a way as possible, and it certainly comes across as such.
While elements were taken from Reisman’s 1974 memoir, The Money Player: The Confessions of America’s Greatest Table Tennis Champion and Hustler, the film isn’t based on any sort of fact and that’s abundantly clear through how crazy the escalating course of events are, flipping the traditional sports underdog story on its head and providing something that will result in aghast befuddlement and shock. Despite what’s been advertised, table tennis is barely present in this two-and-a-half-hour-long feature, with the screenplay written by Safdie and Ronald Bronstein, concocting a set of scenarios that look standard on paper, but feel overwhelming and ludicrous when delivered.
MARTY SUPREME is on adrenaline at every second, with direction that’s punchy, electric and full of sweaty energized personality, deeply flawed characters who remain easily investable through dedicated performances, zippy dialogue that offers a lot of character and mayhem, and visuals that display the chaos extremely intimately (which makes the drama more palpable and the insanity more surreal). Despite spending a lot of time on side plots and deviations, the movie is well paced and doesn’t feel dull due to the ferocity with which these moments are shot, performed and directed, but therein lies one of the components that’s holding the film back.
While high on feelings and providing an unforgettable experience, the film isn’t one that cares about deep character study or fulfilling character arcs, largely investing in the thrill of the moment rather than the long-term ramifications or purpose behind them, resulting in a final product that’s a blast to watch, but rings a little hollow. The creatively worded insult-ridden dialogue and feverish performances are good distractions, and the movie does seem to achieve what it set out to accomplish, but it’s not a movie that’ll leave you feeling like you’ve learned something.
Marty Supreme is a garbage person, but it feels like the movie understands this and is able to write him in a way that’s never unbearable. The things this character does is borderline sociopathic in parts and his gigantic ego and arrogance to believe he’s a messiah of ping-pong who doesn’t need to waste time on others unless they benefit him, makes it clear that the audience should have absolutely no sympathy for him, but the movie strangely doesn’t suffer from this and it comes down to how he’s written and performed. Watching this punk kid get taken down more and more as the film progresses is pretty cathartic, and because Chalamet effortlessly captures the role’s boisterous nature, he’s able to perfectly portray the role’s facets in a believable manner and therefore allows him to feel real and not a forced caricature. He’s not a character to root for nor is he someone you can even love to hate, but you’re at least with him as the film keeps going and you don’t despise his presence.
While the rest of the cast can’t keep up with the rampant energy of Chalamet, they do keep enough of a pace to not get swept up by the environment, and because this reality is more exaggerated and practically thrives on over-the-top energy, the characters have a lot of personality and are therefore pretty memorable. Some don’t do much, like Fran Drescher is entirely wasted in the film, but otherwise a lot of the performances are quite captivating. With that said, the characters aren’t able to be their best selves because of the movie’s sole focus on Marty and its constantly moving pace, leaving most of them as highly entertaining caricatures with decent potential to be interesting, but ones that don’t have very fulfilling conclusions.
Gwenyth Paltrow is pretty good as a once-successful movie star who lives a hollow life and shares some decent banter with Chalamet, but has a pretty limp conclusion, Odessa A ‘Zion has enough spunk to keep up with Chalamet and is easily sympathetic due to being in an abusive relationship (and not being treated that much better by Marty), but her stationary role as the love interest prevents many fresh or new scenes, Kevin O’Leary is pretty memorable as essentially the film’s antagonist, but ironically only shows up in select scenes, Tyler Okonma is only utilized in one section of the film, people like Luke Manley, Abel Ferrara, Larry Sloman, and Géza Röhrig provide some nice scenes, but don’t stay around enough to have a ton of character, and Koto Kawaguchi fulfils the role of ‘’sports rival’’ with an effectively stoic counterbalance to Marty’s extremeness, but isn’t used in the plot in a fashion that’d allow for many unique scenes.
For such an eccentric feature that runs on its surreal insanity, it’s ironically fitting that the environment and overall aesthetic of the movie are quite authentic. For a scenario as ridiculous as creating a gritty comedy drama about a hard-core table tennis player, the movie does a good job making the sport look pretty cool and official through the clean camera work, tight editing and fully invested performances, and aspects of real world history being incorporated like the feuding tension between the U.S. and Japan in the aftermath of World War II add that little dose of reality to make this scenario not only more intriguing, but also more plausible.
The visualisation of the film is pretty great, with the production design by Jack Fisk (who has worked on period films with a hint of aggressive flair before with There Will Be Blood, The Revenant, and Killers of the Flower Moon) and costume design by Miyako Bellizzi accurately capturing the 1950s New York style, grit and grime to a point where the sharp, snappy attitude of every character and cramped feeling of every location makes total sense. This level of claustrophobia is heightened through the close-quarters camerawork by Darius Khondji, which when paired with the sweaty dim lighting, morose color palette, and fact that it was shot on 35 mm film, really evokes the gritty, independent styling of an 80s film (which were known for their dirtier environments, unapologetic characters and more oppressive yet crazy atmospheres), and brings you into each moment of mayhem and forces you to look at it in all its weirdness. The musical score by Daniel Lopatin is also a nice blend of strange and dramatic, with its synthy disco-esque modern sound mixed with a strangely operatic tone providing a piece that characterises the film pretty nicely.
MARTY SUPREME did achieve his goal of being considered one of the greatest films of 2025, and Chalamet may also have succeeded at finally getting his long-desired Oscar, but what ironically holds it back from being perfect is also what makes it such an unforgettable experience, that being that it just goes wild without ever thinking twice about what it’s showcasing. The movie will keep you invested and will provide something unlike what you’d expect of a typical sports film, but this also means there’s not a lot of investment surrounding the characters or the situation. Nevertheless, the film is still packed with speedy and punchy direction, great performances (especially from Timothée Chalamet), the environment feels believable in spite of the craziness that unfolds, and the script offers enough memorable zingers and wacky scenarios to keep you guessing the entire time. It’s safe to say nobody is going to forget MARTY SUPREME anytime soon.
