I was beyond excited to see this movie. So excited that I trekked deep into Brooklyn to a non-AMC theater (really tough for a Stubs member) so I could see it as early as possible. Like many other releases this year, there was a lot of hype in the months leading up to Marty Supreme. The marketing was ten kinds of bonkers, the early reviews and reactions were all raves, and it seemed like the movie was everywhere. But I actually wasn’t worried about it being overhyped this time. I feel like I went in knowing I was about to see something special. And my gut was right. From the second the opening credits hit, this movie tells you it’s going to be unlike anything else. I found myself just smiling in the theater multiple times throughout the movie because I was so taken by it. The rest of the time I was completely locked in, never knowing what was going to happen next. Marty Supreme is a nonstop adrenaline ride set in a fully realized world that is so sure of itself it’s nearly impossible not to be totally captivated.

Marty Supreme is part sports movie, part American period epic directed by Josh Safdie. Josh previously co-directed films like Good Time and Uncut Gems with his brother Benny Safdie, who earlier this year also released his own solo feature with The Smashing Machine. Set in postwar New York City in 1952, the movie follows the fictional Marty Mauser on a series of misadventures in pursuit of his dream to be the greatest table tennis player in the world. The story is loosely based on real-life ‘50s table-tennis champion Marty Reisman, but it is not a biopic, even though some biographical details are included as homage. While the movie never stops moving from one crazy predicament to another, it’s the character at the center of it all who’s the engine and the most fascinating part. 

Sean Fennessey of The Big Picture wrote of the film, “One of the best movies I’ve ever seen about being an idiot in your 20s,” (and also said on the podcast that apparently Timothée Chalamet is quoting him on this?). Marty is both an idiot and the smartest guy in the room. Or maybe he just thinks he’s the smartest guy in the room. Which makes him an idiot. There’s a recurring epithet regarding Loki in the Marvel Universe: he’s “burdened with glorious purpose”. That describes Marty to a T. He is all unbridled ambition and single-minded purpose to get what he wants. Not only does he not take no for an answer, but he genuinely refuses to believe there’s any future in which he doesn’t achieve his goals. Does he even buy his own bullshit? Or is he more in love with the concept of greatness than actually being great? This mindset makes Marty his own worst enemy. He powers himself forward on using everyone around him with no regard for anyone but himself. He can’t even see the ways in which his actions affect and hurt the people who get close to him. And, even if he could, Marty would argue that the destination is worth the journey, even if that specific destination only benefits him. Not to get too personal, but I’ve spent a lot of time recently thinking about my dream, my purpose in life. Sometimes I wish I had a goal as clear-cut as Marty does. Where there’s no world in which you could imagine doing anything else so you do everything in your power to get it. In some ways, it’s nice to know exactly what you want and have that drive vs. feeling aimless. But then you watch Marty and see him burn every bridge in pursuit of his dream. It costs him everything. And for what? Marty says to his friend/girlfriend Rachel, “I want to tell you something and it’s not intended to be mean. I have a purpose. You don’t. And if you think that’s some kind of blessing it’s not. It puts me at a huge life disadvantage. It means I have an obligation to see a very specific thing through. And with that obligation comes sacrifice. My life is the product of the choices I’ve been forced to make to see this specific thing through. Yours is the result of, what? Just making it up as you go along? That’s how you are. It’s not how I am.” The Loki refrain said it best: purpose is both glorious and a burden. 

Marty’s entire existence is a hustle. Critic David Crow wrote that Marty is “drunk on the confidence of youth and the arrogance to believe that talent and charm is enough”. He’s a fast talking, asshole, schemer, conman who is constantly writing checks he can’t cash. Everyone hates him. But, at the same time, people can’t help but be charmed and intrigued by him. He knows just how to pull people in. Marty is such a thorny, complex character that we love to hate and hate to love. But as more and more people see the film, a debate has started to pop up online about whether Marty is a “good person” or a “bad person”. I think conversations like these are completely antithetical to the reason we watch movies. Who cares if Marty is good or bad? He’s not a real person. This is a work of fiction created for the purposes of entertainment. Many people had this criticism of Succession, that they didn’t like the show because none of the characters were likable. I do not believe that characters need to be likable or kind to be compelling and watchable. As a matter of fact, the majority of the most interesting characters in history are the ones who are morally ambiguous. And they’re the ones who actually do seem the most real. Because humans are not entirely good or bad or likable all the time. We don’t fit neatly into categories and we change over and over and over again throughout our lives. We find Marty in this months-long span during his 20s where he’s an idiot. And maybe that makes him unlikable and bad person at this moment in his life. Who cares? All I know is that he’s endlessly fun to watch and that’s why we go to the movies.

In my review of The Smashing Machine, I outlined the ways in which Benny Safdie’s film was stylistically in keeping with the oeuvre he’s created with his brother, despite being a solo-directing effort. In Marty Supreme, Josh Safdie does the same thing. The Hollywood Reporter described their signature best in their review of The Smashing Machine: “a stylized moody realism; a cast mixing trained actors with regular people; a downbeat vibe enlivened by flashes of raw humor and kinetic energy; and stories carried by protagonists often addicted to something, whether it’s theft (The Pleasure of Being Robbed, Good Time), drugs (Heaven Knows What) or gambling (Uncut Gems)… [The Smashing Machine] falls in line with other Safdie bros flicks about likable losers getting hammered by everything life tosses at them.” Even on a more one-to-one comparison between the brothers’ solo work, Marty Supreme and The Smashing Machine are both sports stories about hubristic men who are defined by their passion. If I had to choose one word to describe a Safdie movie, I would say “anxiety”. The films move so fast and never stop to catch their breath. Uncut Gems gave me a headache because it was so stressful to watch. With Marty Supreme I felt that to a much lesser extent, but the pace is still there. Josh Safdie said on The Big Picture podcast that he’s afraid of time. Maybe that’s why his films are so frenetic; it’s a manifestation of how rapidly he feels time passing.

As similar as this movie is to previous Safdie work, Marty Supreme definitely operates on the grandest scale. It’s an epic in every sense of the word. Production designer Jack Fisk’s gritty 1950’s Lower East Side is picture perfect and captures a very Scorsese NYC energy. This is reportedly A24’s most expensive project to date, at around $70 million, and it shows. You can see the care and detail (and money) they put into making this look as incredible as it does. The score by Daniel Lopatin is awesome right from the first second. It’s booming, sweeping, propulsive, operatic at times. The film also employs anachronistic needle drops from 1980s songs, most notably Alphaville’s “Forever Young” and Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”, both of which hit incredibly hard. Particularly the latter, which plays to close the film, as the opening lyrics of the song act as a skeleton key to the meaning of the final scene. The 1980s look and feel of a story that takes place in the 1950s contributes to the uniquely idiosyncratic tone of the movie that makes it feel so special. Paired with random details and unusual detours that create a lived-in world, Marty Supreme becomes a singular cinematic experience.

There is no Marty Supreme without Timothée Chalamet. They have almost become one and the same. With this performance, Timmy has all but solidified himself as our next great movie star. He has said the career he most aspires to is Leonardo DiCaprio’s and he seems to be following that path pretty well. It was funny timing when I went to see this movie because I was in the middle of a Homeland rewatch. I was literally watching teenage Timmy in season 2 on my television screen just hours before seeing present-day Timmy on the big screen. But the thing I always find impressive about Timothée Chalamet is his ability to disappear into a role. He’s become a household name as a celebrity at this point (I mean he’s dating a Kardashian/Jenner), but I never see him in his work, I see the characters. The sign of a truly great actor. And as Marty, he is so locked in it feels like the performance is coming from inside of him rather than something he’s putting on. Maybe because of his dedication and commitment to the role. For his breakout in 2017’s Call Me by Your Name, Timothée learned Italian and how to play piano and guitar. To portray Bob Dylan in 2025’s A Complete Unknown, he learned harmonica and took vocal lessons. (Worth noting he earned Oscar nominations for both roles.) Chalamet told The Hollywood Reporter he started taking ping pong lessons for Marty Supreme back in 2018 and practiced on the set of other movies he worked on. He also wore contacts to “mess up” his vision so he could wear real glasses to play Marty, which ultimately led to an eye infection. Or maybe his performance is so good because there actually isn’t that much separation between where Timmy ends and Marty starts. They’re both ambitious kids from New York in relentless pursuit of a dream. Timothée famously stated during his 2025 SAG Awards acceptance speech for playing Bob Dylan, “I’m really in pursuit of greatness. I want to be one of the greats.” He said in the same Hollywood Reporter interview of playing Marty, “In spirit, this is the most who I was that I’ve had to play a role. This is who I was before I had a career.”

Was that speech and more recent behavior just method marketing or is this really who he is? The Marty Supreme marketing campaign alone is a case study in effective buzz-building. A24 (the studio behind the film) released a satirical marketing meeting video on Instagram, the Empire State Building lit up orange, an orange blimp flew in the sky, Timothée Chalamet crashed a table tennis tournament in New York and became the first person to appear on top of the Las Vegas Sphere, which was lit up like an orange ping pong ball with the film’s tagline, “Dream Big.” Timothée has also given exclusive Marty Supreme jackets to many of his famous friends and had fans waiting 24 hours in line to try to buy one. These antics have definitely gotten the attention of younger audiences and the movie has seen box office success. But how will all this be received by Oscar voters? Some have been put off by his confidence or arrogance (however you look at it). There’s no doubt he’ll be nominated. In my view, the race comes down to Timmy vs. Leo (for One Battle After Another). Facing off against his idol. I don’t even know who I’d pick between the two at this point. But what I do know is that Timothée Chalamet has proven himself as a generational movie star and, if he doesn’t win the Oscar this year, he’ll be back again for sure.

The supporting cast includes Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A’zion, Tyler the Creator, Fran Drescher, Kevin O’Leary, and Abel Ferrara. Gwyneth Paltrow has become such a character in pop culture these days with Goop and the “conscious uncoupling” and her viral ski trial, you forget she’s a legitimately good actress. I mean, she won an Oscar! But it’s so nice to see her back in her first non-Marvel film role in 10 years. And she’s absolutely awesome in it as fading movie star Kay Stone (a meta nod to her own current situation?). On the other end of the spectrum is Odessa A’zion who is also really good in the movie in a breakout performance as Marty’s wannabe girlfriend, Rachel. She’s having her moment right now with the recent release of HBO’s I Love LA, on which she plays a completely different kind of role, showing her range. Tyler the Creator was so fun and captivating in his big screen debut, bringing amazing energy to his scenes. I was looking forward to seeing Fran Drescher but unfortunately she’s barely in the film and not given much to do. Maybe the most talked about performance in the movie is Kevin O’Leary, making his acting debut. Yes, that Kevin O’Leary. Mr. Wonderful from Shark Tank. Known as being the “bad guy” on that show and a controversial figure politically, O’Leary is perfectly cast as a smug businessman. When asked about his choice to cast O’Leary, Josh Safdie told The Hollywood Reporter, “Kevin in particular on Shark Tank is always the guy who’s going to be an asshole. But that’s what’s so fun about him — you enjoy watching him be a dick […] I needed someone who you did not like … in a deep, unconscious way.” And, like him or not, it turns out he’s actually a pretty good actor. Casting non-actors or regular people is a Safdie film staple. The supporting cast of Marty Supreme is populated with these figures: famed director Abel Ferrara plays a menacing dog owner that Marty crosses paths with, author Larry “Ratso” Sloman plays Marty’s uncle, real-life Japanese table tennis player Koto Kawaguchi plays Marty’s opponent representing Japan, author Pico Iyer plays the head of the International Table Tennis Association, internet personality Luke Manley plays Marty’s friend Dion, CEO of Gristedes and D’Agostino Supermarkets John Catsimatidis plays Dion’s father, former NBA player George Gervin plays the table tennis club owner, the viral Ted Williams or “The Man with the Golden Voice” plays a worker at the club, magician Penn Jillette plays a farmer in New Jersey (and is truly unrecognizable), fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi plays Kay’s publicist, playwright and filmmaker David Mamet plays a stage director working with Kay, French highwire artist Philippe Petit plays a Brussels MC, and former and current NBA players Tracy McGrady and Kemba Walker play Harlem Globetrotters. It’s so interesting to bring in all of these people from such different spheres of life but no one feels out of place in the film. If anything, it helps the world to feel more authentic.

I was blown away by Marty Supreme and had the best time watching it. And I’m still thinking about it weeks later because it’s so hard to pin down. It’s really funny but also dark and thrilling and at times emotional. There’s a whole stretch in the middle where you forget it’s about ping pong. Critic Diego Andaluz called it “a deranged cross between Catch Me If You Can & Uncut Gems”. But what it really is is confident, ambitious filmmaking with a confident, ambitious star. Everyone should see this movie. I can’t promise you’ll like it, but I can guarantee you won’t be bored.

2025 Count: 84 movies, 53 seasons of television, 5 specials