Marty Supreme Review

Marty Supreme is a sports drama loosely inspired by the life of table tennis player Marty Reisman. It is seen as one of the leading award contenders of the 2026 season.

Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet) is a New York shoe salesman and a table tennis player, who’s set to play in the British Open in 1952. In London, Marty makes contacts and upsets even more people. When he returns to New York, Marty has to hustle and swindle so he can raise money to compete in the World Championship in Tokyo.

Marty Supreme has earned rave reviews, been selected by many critics as one of the best films of 2025, and at the time of writing, had earned three Golden Globe nominations. The film has also done well financially. It earned $145,333 pre-screen on its limited release, and during the Christmas Weekend it earned $27.1 million in the USA, coming second to Avatar: Fire and Ash and beating films like Anaconda, The Housemaid, and Song Sung Blue. Marty Supreme looks like it will be one of A24’s most successful films.

Marty Supreme was a film that Chalamet was heavily involved in. He produced the film as well as starring in it. Chalamet was excellent in the film because his character was a smugbag whom audience members will long to see get the beating of his life. The film opened with Marty trying to sell an old woman shoes that were too small for her. In London, he acted like the John McEnroe of table tennis and a stereotypical ugly American. He was arrogant, argued with officials, and made offensive comments to the press as he exerted his sense of entitlement and superiority. Marty was a radioactive narcissist; he infected and destroyed everyone who came close to him. As the film progressed, Marty grew more desperate and promised he could pay people back with his winnings at the World Championship: something that wasn’t a guarantee.

After the tournament in London and a tour with the Harlem Globetrotters, Marty Supreme shifted to being a drama where he was running around New York looking for money. Marty was someone who grew more and more desperate as the film progressed. He was an egoist who stated his ambition was to become the world’s greatest table tennis player and make that his living, whilst not giving up his sporting integrity. However, he was someone who had to face up to adult responsibility. Other characters called out Marty for his self-centred attitude. It made Marty Supreme an unusual coming-of-age story.

Chalamet has experience playing arrogant, asshole characters. His performance as Bob Dylan showed the singer becoming a more big-headed man who stood against the values of folk music. In Marty Supreme Chalamet’s character had to earn his redemption. Even with his faults, Marty did seem to have some semblance of a conscience, like he heard about a man abusing his wife, and grew affectionate to a dog, but these moments were few and far between. Marty’s self-interest was always his primary concern.

All the characters in the film were villainous in some way. They were selfish or self-serving. Early in the film, Marty avoided speaking with his mother (Fran Drescher), as she tried to manipulate her son by saying she was ill. No one comes off well in that exchange. The level of deplorability varied wildly. The vilest character was Milton Rockwell (Kevin O’Leary), a businessman who takes an interest in table tennis and a dislike towards Marty.

The cast of the film was ecstatic. Chalamet and Gwyneth Paltrow have star power, Fran Drescher’s a veteran, and A’zion is an emerging talent, known for her roles in Until Dawn and I Love LA. Yet the cast was made up of a lot of non-actors with little to no credits. O’Leary is a businessman who appears in the Canadian version of Shark Tank, Tyler Okonma is a rapper, Abel Ferrara is the director of films like King of New York and Bad Lieutenant, and Luke Manley is an internet personality. The actor/magician Penn Jillette was unrecognisable as an angry farmer. Everyone gives excellent performances, showing that Josh Safdie can get the best out of his actors regardless of experience.

BBC Radio 1’s Ali Plumb stated Marty Supreme was similar to The Hustler when he interviewed Chalamet, and the actor agreed. Marty Supreme had a similar structure to The Hustle since the first and third acts were about competing in a sport, whilst the middle arc was about hustling for survival and recognition. It was a non-traditional sports movie narrative of a plucky underdog defying the odds. If Marty Supreme wanted to be a traditional sports movie, it would have focused on his Japanese rival.

Marty Supreme has been classed as a comedy-drama. There was a dark wit throughout the film, but it did lean more towards drama since it was a street-level film, with Marty having to handle some serious situations.

Marty Supreme was a bold and striking film that deserves the praise it has received. Everything was firing on all cylinders as it showed a determined, self-centred man becoming more desperate and destructive.