Monday, 9 March 2026
Marty Supreme (2025, dir. Josh Safdie)
There are certain movies which cause me such anxiety to watch and in most cases, this is enough to turn me off a movie forever. However, this film manages to surpass that initial impulse, making my anxiety watching it a worthwhile part of the experience.
Marty Supreme is ostensibly a sports comedy-drama that follows table tennis player Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet), who will do just about anything to become a world champion. The movie begins and ends with table tennis, first at the British Open and later at the World Championship in Tokyo, but the entire middle is back in New York, as Marty attempts to find a way to pay off his debt from London and for his ticket to Tokyo. There are a handful of other characters who guide Marty’s journey—his lover and mother-to-be Rachel Mizler (Odessa A’zion), retired actress with whom Mary flirts Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow), Kay's husband with an interest in Marty’s career Milton Rockwell (Kevin O’Leary), taxi driver and friend Wally (Tyler Okonma). The list goes on, quite extensively.
I mention the cast to highlight my first point of praise for this film: absolutely excellent character work. This movie does not shy away from having immediately interesting characters who you would, to be frank, rather spend the movie with than Marty. It makes the world feel lived in and emphasizes the nature and effects of Marty’s behavior. That brings us into the structure of this film, which takes a major break from the table tennis to focus on Marty’s time in New York. It’s still present, but it’s not the crux of what’s happening, focusing instead on car chases, shootouts and fights, and affairs. It’s completely unexpected for a sports movie. While it does occasionally feel like whiplash, there’s a cohesion to the series of events that I appreciated.
This is a movie about pride and the places it takes its main character Marty. It’s absolutely great in so many ways—the performances, the costumes and set design, the editing and music, the lighting and cinematography. Just know you are in for an absolutely wild ride.