(KTLA) — There’s no shortage of films about people who believed they were destined for greatness and were right. Josh Safdie‘s sports drama “Marty Supreme” explores what happens when you get it wrong (and what happens next).
Spoilers ahead for “Marty Supreme.”
The film stars Timothée Chalamet as Marty Mauser, an up-and-coming star in the burgeoning world of competitive table tennis. He works in a shoe store he doesn’t care about, has impregnated a married neighbor he doesn’t want to be with, and most importantly, he’s constantly broke.
Despite all this, Marty leaves to compete in a championship he’s sure will make him the American face of table tennis. He’s so sure of his impending glory that he’s even convinced his friend’s wealthy father to invest in a line of “Marty Supreme”-branded orange ping pong balls. As he expects, Marty makes it to the final round of the competition — what he hadn’t expected, however, is Japan’s last-minute entrant, who wipes the floor with him.
After an embarrassing public display of sore losing (which only helps his competitor become more famous), Marty retreats back to the U.S. with even more to prove. But will money, his family and friends, and the consequences of his rash decisions stop him?
Though “Marty Supreme” is loosely inspired by real-life table tennis player Marty Reisman, the filmmakers have stressed the film is not a biopic, and that the film is fiction. So much so that the words “inspired by” or “based on” appear nowhere in the film’s marketing or runtime. This is probably good news for the late Reisman, as Chalamet’s Mauser wouldn’t necessarily be a compliment of a portrayal.
Chalamet (who turns 30 on Saturday), owns the screen like never before as the slick and charming Marty, who knows how to get what he wants and is willing to do questionable things to get the rest. In “Marty Supreme,” gone is the soft and emotional Chalamet of “Call Me By Your Name” or the quiet command he displayed in “Dune.” Here, Chalamet plays a guy, an overconfident, fast-talking and desperate guy — more in the vein of anti-hero main characters from the films of Scorsese and Mann. Chalamet has never given more to a performance and never had more to juggle than he does here, and he does all of it perfectly. I’d call it a movie star-making role if I didn’t already think he was one. If anything, the performance banks multiple credits toward Chalamet’s proclamation during his February SAG Awards acceptance speech that he’s “in pursuit of greatness.” He openly wants to be “one of the greats” and maybe he actually will be.
The film is also populated with robust characters both large and small, including Kay (Gwyneth Paltrow), an actress turned trophy wife for Milton Rockwell (“Shark Tank”‘s Kevin O’Leary, in his debut role), a mega-businessman who sniffs out Marty’s B.S. from a mile away. It’s always nice to be reminded how terrific an actress Paltrow is, and in Kay, the 53 year-old Academy Award winner radiates dissatisfied glamour the way only Gwyneth Paltrow could.
Meanwhile, Odessa A’zion (HBO’s “I Love LA”) plays Marty’s sometimes-neighbor, Rachel, a childhood friend who wants nothing but to be with Marty. Rachel’s yearning devotion gives the film a welcome bit of heart to counterbalance some of Marty’s ruthlessness. A’zion would be a wonderful choice for a Best Supporting Actress nod at the forthcoming 98th Academy Awards.
On the technical side of things, “Marty Supreme” is director Safdie’s first film since 2019’s underrated crime thriller “Uncut Gems,” which builds upon that film’s rapid pacing, sharp cuts and stirring action, but without quite as much claustrophobic stress. Though there’s plenty of tension to go around in “Marty,” as most of the film finds the would-be great athlete scrambling to get enough money for what he believes is his make-or-break second championship in Tokyo.
How well the screenplay, co-written by Safdie and Ronald Bronstein (“Uncut Gems”), operates feels like a mystery, as someone who has attempted writing screenplays. It’s a marvel of a tension-building driven by character moments. Although “Marty Supreme” builds and builds toward one moment that feels enormous, its script and shots don’t discount greater insights into its characters or its places (in-and-around New York). In this way, “Marty Supreme” feels full and satisfying, offering most everything one could want in a film (including its banger original score by Daniel Lopatin).
Marty is changed by film’s end, for although he desperately manages to eke out a non-official win over his former Japanese rival, what it took to make it happen feels more like an embarrassment than a victory.
Marty returns to the U.S. to attend to Rachel, who, earlier in the film, he abandoned at the hospital after a gun fight goes awry. She’s now given birth. Marty kisses a sleeping Rachel, telling her — for the first time in the film — that he loves her. Next, he heads to the newborn nursery to view “his” child, who up until this point he’s denied fathering.
The final shot of the film lingers on a weeping Chalamet as Marty looks on at his baby and Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” plays. It’s an ending that leaves room for speculation about Marty’s feelings, though I tend to view it as the character’s crash landing into acceptance: Acceptance of his own averageness, acceptance of a dream coming to its inevitable conclusion, and, perhaps more positively, acceptance of new dreams.
“Marty Supreme” is a brilliant and comprehensive portrait of those who dare to shoot for the stars and miss; making the film an all-too relatable mirror of the shortcomings all of us must face at some point in our lives. It’s my favorite film of 2025.
“Marty Supreme” is in theaters nationwide now.
Score: ★★★★★
Nexstar’s Russell Falcon is an entertainment critic and voting member of multiple critics’ organizations. You can find him on Instagram, X, TikTok and Substack.