Marty Supreme

MARTY SUPREME (15)

D: Josh Safdie

A24 / Central Pictures (Josh Safdie, Ronald Bronstein, Eli Bush, Anthony Katagas & Timothee Chalamet)

US 🇺🇸 2025

150 mins

Drama/Sports/Comedy

W: Ronald Bronstein & Josh Safdie

DP: Darius Khondji

Ed: Ronald Bronstein & Josh Safdie

Mus: Daniel Lopatin

PD: Jack Fisk

Cos: Miyako Bellizzi

Timothee Chalamet (Marty Mauser), Gwyneth Paltrow (Kay Stone), Odessa A’zion (Rachel Mizler), Kevin O’Leary (Milton Rockwell), Tyler Okonma (Wally), Abel Ferrara (Ezra Mishkin)

Timothee Chalamet plays Marty Mauser, an American-Jewish table tennis player and legend in his own mind, who heads to a tournament in Britain full of his own self-importance as an elitist of the sport, too good to bunk with the other competitors, and so he fraudulently expenses a luxury hotel stay to the organisers. 

While living the high-life, he seduces a former actress and husband of a wealthy stationery company, but when he loses the final to a Japanese player, he returns to New York even more determined to win the next tournament.

However, his past catches up with him, and he finds himself on the run from the police for stealing from his uncle’s shoe shop, facing a hefty fine for his London deceptions, as well as discovering that he had impregnated Rachel, a married friend he was previously having an affair with.

Seemingly going to any lengths to ensure he can participate in the next tournament and redeem his defeat, Marty leaves a trail of chaos, destruction and suffering in his wake as he has only one objective in mind.

Loosely based on the real life table tennis player, Marty Reisman, Chalamet delivers quite an extraordinary performance in this black comedy, insofar as that you find the character irredeemably arrogant, quite insufferable and morally reprehensible, the steps he takes on his journey makes you want him to succeed, even though you  aren’t really rooting for him to.  The rest of the cast are also excellent, especially Gwyneth Paltrow as a washed-up star and Odessa A’zion as Rachel Mizler, the married childhood friend who is pregnant with his child.

For a 2 & a half hour film, it’s edited in a way that makes it feel much shorter, with spectacular cinematography and period detail that brings 1950s New York City to life, although the anachronistic music used in the soundtrack is a creative choice that only partially works.

Nominated for 9 Academy Awards, but winning zero, I personally think Chalamet was robbed of the Best Actor Oscar.

8/10