Marty Supreme

I'm gonna step up in a way you can't even imagine... and this movie steps up big time.

Very mild spoilers may be ping ponging around in the paragraphs ahead.

Marty Supreme introduces us to Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet) as a reluctant shoe salesman, suavely lying to a customer in order to upsell them on a pair of expensive shoes. But that potential sale doesn’t matter because he almost immediately pawns said customer to a colleague so he can have sex with his married ‘friend’ Rachel (Odessa A’zion) in a storage closet before skipping work altogether to practice table tennis ahead of the British Open in London. The only thing that matters to Marty is table tennis.

And that’s just the first five exhilarating minutes of the movie.

It’s immediately clear that Marty runs purely on narcissistic instinct. He already believes he’s the best table tennis player in the world, and he’s more than willing to swindle, lie, and gaslight all those in his path if it means the world believes it too, consequences be damned.

As soon as Marty has made it to London for the British Open, he’s in his element, taking down opponents with ease en route to the finals. But watching him play table tennis isn’t that interesting. What is interesting is how Marty’s actions in pursuit of his goal have far-reaching consequences that come back to bite him at seemingly random moments.

His default operating mode is an abrasive fast-talking Zoomer who has no qualms making jokes about the Holocaust or being Hitler’s worst nightmare (it’s okay because he’s a Jew). Every friend and person he meets along the way is seen as merely a stepping stone to success. There’s wealthy businessman Milton Rockwell (Kevin O’Leary), his ‘old friend’ Dion (Luke Manley) who functions as a human wallet, and even a dodgy criminal Ezra (Abel Ferrara) whose big bag of money becomes very interesting to Marty. When someone isn’t a stepping stone, they’re merely disposable pleasurable objects, like retired actress Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow). There’s almost no conversation between Marty and another character that doesn’t involve table tennis, his ambitions, and what he can get out of them.

This is important early groundwork in establishing how Marty badly wants superstardom. The constant ping pong (pun intended) between Marty’s behaviour and his ultimate goal is a powerful engine that drives the movie. It’s easy to believe that Marty could indeed conquer the world… if only he wasn’t so easily susceptible to self-sabotage brought on by his worst impulses.

Taking a leaf from his previous movie, Uncut Gems, director and co-screenwriter Josh Safdie almost suffocates us by unfurling one high-stress incident after another. I’ve always said that it’s always enjoyable to watch competent characters do what they’re good at. But watching awful characters (personality-wise) fail over and over in deeply relatable ways is perhaps even more entertaining.

In any ‘normal’ universe, Marty Mauser would be shoved into a jail cell for being a menace to society. But Safdie has dreamed up an alternative universe where a fast-talking hustler like Marty can credibly exist.

Marty Supreme is a movie built on its main character’s confidence while hooking you in like a confidence trick. You quickly clock that this is a weird movie full of anachronisms. It’s set in ‘50s New York but the character-study storytelling is reminiscent of ‘70s Martin Scorsese, with a synth-heavy score from the ‘80s, all while the scattershot talking rhythm and dynamic filmmaking style are distinctly of the 2010s and 2020s. Everything is so disorienting, so confusing, that we’re swept up in the whirlwind of chaos that is Marty Mauser and clinging on with our fingertips.

Having the other Safdie brother, Benny, release his own pseudo-sports biopic in the same year also hammers home why Marty Supreme works so well while The Smashing Machine doesn’t. While both revolve around real sportspeople (Marty Mauser is loosely based on real-life table tennis player Marty Reisman), the grounded reality and conventional ‘sports story’ of The Smashing Machine grinds up against what it is trying to do. By contrast, Marty Supreme is set in an absurdist universe where a fast-talking hustler like Marty can credibly exist. In any ‘normal’ universe, Marty Mauser would be shoved into a jail cell for being a menace to society.

This is a strangely structured movie where the plot unfolds like a series of vignettes involving many colourful characters. When Marty loses the British Open finals in humiliating fashion to Japanese player Koto Endo (Koto Kawaguchi), things quickly spiral out of control as his desperation to reclaim his status butts up against all those who he’s lied to and swindled. Whether it’s on purpose (like cheating some rednecks out of money to fund a future trip to Japan for a rematch against Endo) or unfortunate acts of fate (like the bathtub Marty is bathing in crashing through the floor and literally onto Ezra’s arm), this is a universe where ‘cause and effect’ is the most powerful force that’s almost as immutable as gravity.

Honestly, Marty Supreme is so unrelentingly entertaining that you could map whatever reading you want to it, or you can just sit back and let the movie sweep you away. One could argue it’s about the dumb stuff you do in your 20s and the consequences of those actions. There’s an argument to be made that it’s a satire of the mythical American Dream and how it is ultimately built on lies upon lies. It’s a credit to Safdie and his co-screenwriter Ronald Bronstein for crafting such a dense script that you can find something insightful if you wish. There is a lack of ultimate catharsis by the end of the movie, but I hazard a guess that it’s by design. Marty is such a thoroughly despicable character that redemption is nigh impossible and you’re just grateful you survived the rollercoaster by the end.

Safdie also makes a good choice to never examine the reasoning behind why Marty is even doing all this dodgy stuff in pursuit of table tennis greatness. It’s far more interesting to see Marty’s mental gymnastics in establishing the line between passion and opportunism. We can see that every bad thing that happens to Marty is a direct consequence of his own actions, but does he know that? Is he even doing this for the table tennis or to satiate his own impulses?

In the hands of perhaps any other actor, Marty’s abrasive swindler personality would be impossible to root for. Yet this is a character who perfectly matches Chalamet’s inherent indomitable will and effortless charisma. It’s why he’s such a good fit for Paul Attreides and Willy Wonka. I don’t like or even root for Marty, yet I find him endlessly fascinating and want to know how his journey ends. That is a difficult line that Chalamet manages to triumphantly straddle.

There’s also some meta-textual connections between some actors and their characters that make for some interesting reading. Kay Stone trying to make a career comeback as an actress after taking time off due to business and family matters is a pretty good comp to Paltrow’s own life. Casting Kevin O’Leary as an evil businessman is essentially getting him to play himself.

The biggest connection is Chalamet, who has made it abundantly clear that he’s in ‘pursuit of greatness’ with his career choices. Combined with his utterly unhinged promo tour for Marty Supreme, the line becomes increasingly blurred between actor and character, resulting in one of 2025’s best performances and an all-time great ‘cinematic idiot’.

When the credits rolled, my heart rate was twice its usual resting rate and I was in a pool of panic sweat. It shouldn’t be this fun and anxiety-inducing to watch a skinny white boy fail over and over again due to his own reckless abandon, yet Marty Supreme operates at the same level as its titular character: with utmost confidence and a swagger you can’t help but enjoy.