Marty Supreme (2025) – Review

Quick Thoughts:

1. Marty Supreme is thrillingly alive and vibrant. Everything seems to be pulsating with energy. It fits perfectly alongside Good Time (2017) and Uncut Gems (2019)
2. The Safdie Brothers made two unique sports biopics in 2025 (Marty Supreme, The Smashing Machine)
3. Timothée Chalamet is a maniac, and I love it
4. “I’m a vampire” is one of my favorite lines from a 2025 movie
5. Between Challengers (2024) and Marty Supreme, I like that directors have embraced VFX balls (tennis and ping pong). Tennis and ping pong are tough sports to master, so the performances are better when the actors don’t have to hit actual balls. 
6. The opening credits are wonderful

After The Pleasure of Being Robbed (2008), Daddy Longlegs (2009), Heaven Knows What (2014), Good Time (2017), Uncut Gems (2019) and Marty Supreme, I’m hoping that Josh Safdie’s next project is a 90-minute one-take film about a person digging a massive hole for themselves in their backyard. It would certainly be less stressful (unless they hit a water or gas line), and the visual metaphor would work perfectly. Safdie specializes in creating stressful films that feature kleptomaniacs, man babies, criminals, drug addicts, and self-destructive people digging holes for themselves. Marty Supreme is no different, but it refreshingly features a lead character who is really good at something.

The thing I love most about the Josh Safdie (who co-directed Good Time and Uncut Gems) directed Marty Supreme is that the lead character Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet) is a generational table tennis prodigy. After Good Time (2017) and Uncut Gems (2019), two stressful movies about self-destructive maniacs getting in over their heads, I found solace in the fact that Marty is a talented self-destructive maniac who, over the course of the 150-minute film, goes out of his way to blow up his life.

Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler – Uncut Gems), Connie Nikas (Robert Pattison – Good Time), and Marty in Marty Supreme shouldn’t be trusted with money, guns, jewelry, cars, women, or room service transactions. However, Marty seems to be the best of the worst when it comes to Josh Safie’s recent “deeply flawed men who find themselves in deep sh** trilogy.” Marty is a chaotic charmer who can woo a famous actress (Gwyneth Paltrow), and get himself kicked out of the world’s governing table tennis association in the same weekend. Marty writes checks he can’t cash, but he is talented enough to be able to write the checks that get him into some exclusive company. 

From the jump (or bounce), Marty proves his exceptionalism by being an attentive and knowledgeable shoe salesman at a shop owned by his uncle Murray (Larry “Ratso” Sloman). However, being a great salesman doesn’t make him a reliable employee, as he leaves the sales floor to have sex with his married friend Rachel (Odessa A’zion), and takes a five-hour lunch so he can practice for an upcoming table tennis tournament in London. When he comes back to work, his uncle Murray (Larry ‘Ratso’ Sloman) is gone, so instead of waiting to get the $700 he’s owed, he cheekily points a gun at his coworker Lloyd (Ralph Colucci – perfect) to get his flight money. When in London for an International Association of Table Tennis (IATT) tournament, he leaves his cramped athlete housing and books the most expensive room (and orders a ridiculous amount of room service) in the Ritz-Carlton London because that’s where the IATT leaders are staying. The massive hotel bill won’t be a problem if he wins the tournament, but he loses in the finals against a Japanese superstar (and his specialized paddle) named Koto Endo (Koto Kawaguchi – winner of the National Deaf Table Tennis Championships), and is forced to travel around the world working as a half-time entertainer for the Harlem Globetrotters, so he can make money.

When Marty gets back to the States eight months later, he’s hounded by Rachel (who is eight months pregnant), his uncle Murray (who wants his $700 back), and the IATT, who are angry about receiving a $1,500 bill from the Ritz-Carlton. With pressure mounting, Marty only has several weeks to raise an incredible amount of money so he can pay off his debts and play in the world championships in Tokyo. To raise the money, he drags his friend Wally (Tyler the Creator) to Jersey from some ping pong hustling, reunites with London-fling Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow), and attempts to borrow money from her rich husband, Milton Rockwell (Kevin O’Leary). Everything Marty does ends badly, but his endless optimism keeps him moving forward towards more chaos. I don’t want to spoil the rest of the film, just know that a bathtub falls through a ceiling, fake jewelry is stolen, and a dog (owned by a gangster) is set loose. 

Safdie decided to direct after Marty Supreme after his wife bought him a copy of Marty’s autobiography, The Money Player: The confessions of America’s greatest table tennis champion and hustler. Safdie grew up loving table tennis, so a movie about a talented hustler digging holes for himself was tailor-made for him. The amazing thing is that after the success of Good Time and Uncut Gems, Safdie and producer/co-writer Ronald Bronstein (who is a frequent collaborator with the Safdie brothers) were able to snag a whopping $70+ million from A24 to make a period piece about a 23-year old kid from New York City attempting to become a world table tennis champion (and making a mess of it). WIth the sizable budget, they recruited DP Darius Khondji (Se7en, Amour, The Lost City of Z, Uncut Gems, The Immigrant), production designer Jack Fisk (There Will be Blood, Mulholland Drive, The New World, Killers of the Flower Moon), and costume designer Miyako Bellizzi (Good Time, Uncut Gems, Bonjour Tristesse) to create a gorgeous world for Marty to trash. 

The end result features 100+ speaking roles and gives Timothée Chalamet, Tyler the Creator, Odessa A’zion, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin O’Leary, and Koto Kawaguchi, a plethora of moments to shine. Toss in  Emory Cohen, Fran Drescher, Abel Ferrara, Sandra Bernhard, Géza Rôhrig, Larry “Ratso” Sloman, Fred Hechinger, David Mamet, Penn Jillette, Timo Boll, Isaac Mizrahi, Philippe Petit, Pico Iyer, Levon Hawke, Hailey Gates, Paul Grimstad, Ted Williams, and George “The Ice Man” Gervin, and you have an incredible amount of characters. What’s impressive is that Safdie uses them perfectly, and the movie never feels overly stuffed.

Final Thoughts – Marty Supreme is a stressful piece of art.