This review contains spoilers for Marty Supreme (2025).
The 2025 sports drama Marty Supreme, recently nominated for nine Academy Awards, has seemed inescapable over the past few months due to its cultural assault of a marketing campaign, involving a ubiquitous windbreaker, a bright orange blimp, and a viral remix of a Liverpool rapper’s breakout hit. At the center of this hullabaloo is star Timothée Chalamet, endlessly promoting the sports drama with the same charisma and uninhibited determination of his titular character, Marty Mauser.
Marty is a smooth-talking shoe salesman by day and effortlessly talented table tennis player by night. He is defined by his conviction to being the greatest ping-pong player in the history of the sport. We follow Marty as he lies, cheats, and charms his way to world tournaments in London and Tokyo, ambition endangering himself and his relationships along the way. Striving for greatness pushes Marty further and further into morally questionable acts, including his affair with a married woman, a former movie star played by Gwyneth Paltrow.
Marty’s tale is loosely based on the real-life story of Marty Reisman, the 1950s-era flamboyant table tennis champion known for his showmanship and hustling proficiency. Director Josh Safdie (Uncut Gems) draws from Reisman’s legacy to create a dramatic character study of the consequences of determination, interpreting the tennis champion as a slick, confident star whose desire for greatness and wealth engulfs his life and relationships.
Timothée Chalamet’s performance is the crux of the film, masterfully embodying a single-minded talent who alienates and uses everyone around him in his pursuit of greatness. Through his selfishness, which burns countless bridges throughout the course of his quest, it’s refreshing and interesting to see a main character that functions as his own antagonist. While Marty does immoral and self-destructive things, his presence makes the film exude confidence and charisma. Moreover, Marty’s absolute trust in himself and his abilities is inspirational.
Marty is morally reprehensible, choosing to lie to his loved ones, use his talent to hustle, and abandon his pregnant girlfriend (Odessa A’zion) for months to pursue his ping-pong dreams. Still, Chalamet is so charismatic that you can’t help but root for him. Some of the most memorable and entertaining moments come when he puts his sweet-talking talents on full display, like courting a famous actress at a luxury hotel or tricking a customer into buying a more expensive shoe in the first scene of the film.
Chalamet is supported by a range of talent. The cast includes performances from non-actors, like Tyler, the Creator as the taxi driver best friend helping Marty use his skill to hustle, and Kevin O’Leary (yes, of Shark Tank fame), portraying a sleazy businessman who Marty quickly turns into an enemy. Abel Ferrara is present as an animal-loving gangster, Odessa A’zion plays Marty’s smart and scrappy girlfriend, and Gwyneth Paltrow portrays an actress whose best days are behind her. The supporting cast deliver excellent interpretations of their characters, never taking attention away from Marty but each contributing a different element to his journey and growth.
Safdie’s characteristically frantic direction sends the film careening at a breakneck pace, reinforcing the dire mindset of a man with nothing to lose flying by the seat of his pants. Scenes escalate to the point where they almost lose control, just avoiding becoming cheap and sensationalist. Safdie isn’t opposed to using outlandish set pieces (like a bathtub falling through a ceiling to injure an elderly mobster) to create instant tension and conflict for his characters, but these moments are never there just for the sake of catching the audience off guard. Still, the pacing rarely feels too thrilling or overstimulating to follow due to its mix of character moments and emotional twists with the intensity of the more action-packed scenes.
Composer Daniel Lopatin’s retro, 80s-inspired soundtrack features dramatic synths and nostalgic needledrops, such as Tears for Fears’ 1985 hit ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World.’ The disjointed time periods of the setting and soundtrack give an insight into Marty’s belief that he’s been misplaced in the everyday world, an alien among his shoe-salesmen peers.
His rival, Koto Endo (played by Koto Kawaguchi, a real-life table tennis champion), represents Japanese-American tensions at the time. A major source of conflict is Marty’s need to best the foreign player juxtaposed with Koto’s total indifference to Marty and his arrogance. With both of the athletes’ countries rallying around them, tournaments escalate to a vicious battle on the world stage. Endo is deaf, just like the athlete who plays him, meaning that he is unfazed by Marty’s greatest strength: his trash talk and unlimited confident charisma. This dichotomy flips the abilities of the protagonist on its head and skillfully introduces a new element into the relationship between the two competitors.
The flashy ping-pong sequences bring the audience to the edge of their seats, because each retort of the paddles and grunt of effort contribute to what feels like an elaborate dance, one that reflects the hard work and extraordinary talent of its fighters with every serve and backhand. The rhythm of these games is calming, yet captivating; it’s easy to see why Marty has let the game and his mastery of it become the sole object of his being. However, the screentime of these tournaments is surprisingly little, and it feels like there could have been an additional sequence or two of the focal game in this sports drama.
However, the film’s feverish pacing is sometimes inconsistent. A long second-act stretch revolving around Marty’s search for a gangster’s lost dog, for example, drags on. While the explosive and unpredictable script generally balances more intense, stressful scenes with heartfelt character interactions, that tight rhythm occasionally slips, beginning with this extended sequence. This plot point and others like it often overstay their welcome, and contribute to the film gradually losing its focus on the deconstruction of Marty’s tunnel vision towards his goal of global stardom, in favor of establishing more emotional tones.
Marty Supreme, however, has a lot to say about the American dream in its post-WWII world. Marty strives to create his own success, to be the best in the world at his passion, and believes that if you work hard enough and dedicate yourself to a dream, it will come true. This reflects American sentiments on independence during the 1950s, and the way people rally around Marty throughout his journey reflects the common desire to chase greatness and success as the peak of the American dream.
Still, the movie doesn’t shy away from showing how obsession with a dream can be corrupting. As Marty consistently acts selfishly by lying to and alienating himself from the people who care about him, audiences leave the theater wondering if tremendous sacrifice is necessary to achieve true greatness.
Marty Supreme is a special film; the rare movie in our hyper-specific, individualized media landscape that truly feels like a cultural touchstone. The film is a masterful dissection of the pursuit of greatness and its consequences, and only time will tell if the pervasive marketing campaign that led to packed theaters on Christmas Day is the movie’s legacy.
The film embodies absolute determination, and the successes and failings that go along with this pursuit of greatness. We love the cast’s standout dramatic performances, Safdie’s intense direction, and real-world historical parallels. However, the film is held back by its pacing, which can be awkward at times, so we give Marty Supreme a 9/10.
