*SPOILERS* for “Marty Supreme”
“Marty Supreme” is directed by Josh Safdie who is one half of the now broken up Safdie brothers. Josh and Benny Safdie are most known for their films “Good Time” (2017) and “Uncut Gems” (2019) which are very similar in tone and theme. Both feature an unlikeable protagonist that goes through a series of very poor decisions, making the films both feel like a ticking time bomb. After “Uncut Gems” the Safdie’s broke up, Benny went on to do “The Smashing Machine” (2025) starring Dwayne Johnson as real-life UFC fighter Mark Kerr and the chronicles of his life. “The Smashing Machine” was a very day-to-day documentary style film that felt like a complete 180 from the brothers’ usual work. It was very tame and had a melancholic feel about it even with the intense emotional moments. Josh, on the other hand, took that same recipe from his previous films and mixed it up a bit.
“Marty Supreme” follows Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet), a young man with a tireless ambition of becoming the greatest table tennis player in the world. The story kicks off with Marty working at his uncle’s shoe store, trying to get enough money to enter the world table tennis tournament. We meet a potential love interest, Rachel Mizler (Odessa A’zion) as she and Marty get intimate in the back of the shoe store. Before leaving, Marty goes to get the money his uncle owes him to find that he isn’t there. He then just takes it out of the safe.
The film takes place in 1952 New York with America in a post-war state. You can feel the boom of the American dream through people like Marty who are obsessed with being something either big or small. New York is a popular setting in Safdie’s films with him describing the stories he tells as the “underbelly” of the city. You really feel that term in “Marty Supreme” with the gritty environments Marty finds himself in. Whenever Marty is in his underground ping pong practices there are so many different walks of life throughout. The extras were so meticulously cast by casting director Jennifer Venditti.
While at the tournament, Marty stays at the Ritz-Carlton hotel where he meets his second love interest, Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow). Kay is a retired actress who gave up on her dream to get married to her husband Milton Rockwell (Kevin O’Leary). Milton is a successful businessman who owns a company selling pens and also ends up meeting Marty separate from Kay. Marty eventually convinces Kay to come to one of his matches in the tournament. She is charmed enough to actually show up and feels inspired seeing the young man so ambitiously chase after his dream. At this tournament, Marty makes it to the finals where he must go against a player by the name of Koto Endo (Koto Kawaguchi). Marty loses. This crushes him. He is then sent home with nothing. He is then bombarded with every consequence possible: his uncle is trying to get his money back, Rachel is pregnant, and the Ritz-Carlton has fined him $1,500 for staying there.
Timothée Chalamet puts on the performance of a lifetime through the entire two hours and 29 minutes of “Marty Supreme”. He has spoken at length about how he only wants to improve and wants to eventually be in talks with the greats. It is apparent he is officially firing on all cylinders. Gwyneth Paltrow came out of her retirement for this film, having taken a hiatus for six years. She plays a role that hits pretty close to home with both of them returning to acting. The film is full of non-actors, too with the likes of Kevin O’Leary, Tyler Okonma, and Koto Kawaguchi who all do such an amazing job. The Safdie’s are known for their casting of non-actors because of the authenticity it brings. In their early days they would just pick people off the streets and make them turn in amazing performances. An actor is only as good as their director vice versa. You look at co-lead Odessa A’zion in real life and would never imagine her in a period piece but she kills it. She feels so perfect while a little off at the same time. And that goes to what Josh Safdie has said he wants to convey with the performances in the film. Safdie has been on record, saying that he wanted the performances to feel like looking at pictures of your parents before you were born. A very specific feeling that everyone can relate to. There is a certain energy you can feel of your parents when they’re young. An infectious ambition.
After a chaotic chain of events, Marty confides in his friend Wally (Tyler Okonma). Wally also plays table tennis but only as a hobby because of his job as a taxi driver along with his family he needs to tend to. Marty and Wally stay at a hotel where the bath caves into the floor with Marty in it. A man is washing his dog in the bath underneath and while the dog is okay the man’s arm was severely injured. The man tells Marty and Wally to take his dog to the vet and shows them a lot of money which enamors them. The two of them then take the dog to go hustle some people for gas money. They go to a bowling alley and pretend to be bad at ping pong which makes them a lot of money but ends in a disaster. The men they conned chased them to the gas station which blew up into flames leading the dog to escape. Wally is officially done with Marty and leaves him to himself.
The sound design of “Marty Supreme” is beautiful down to every ping pong ball having its own personality. The score, done by Daniel Lopatin, has an operatic feel that makes the film feel like an epic, which it somewhat is. The score encourages you to root for Marty, making him feel like Jesus Christ himself and we’re all in church worshipping him. In that sense, the score is being performed from Marty’s perspective. Which is also the case for the song choices throughout the film, mainly being songs released in the 1980s. Safdie has come out and said this choice was very much deliberate, trying to invoke the feeling that Marty is now in his 50s, telling his grandkids stories from his youth. The song choice of “Forever Young” in the opening credits is so ironic because Marty will never let go of his past, only focusing on what he feels was his biggest success.
After the events with Wally, Marty finds Rachel and denies her baby is his even though she insists it is. Marty and Rachel have an electric Bonnie and Clyde dynamic that is used so well here. They eventually hustle some people together and realize they can contact the man about his dog to get a reward. That goes wrong and ends in Rachel being shot. Marty doesn’t care though, because he has a rematch with Endo to attend. Funded by Milton Rockwell, Marty is set to play an exhibition match against Endo in Japan where he is supposed to lose so the citizens of Japan will want to buy Rockwell’s pens. Marty eventually lets his individualism take over and reveals it’s rigged and that he wants a rematch. Marty wins. He immediately celebrates while the space feels dead. His win is so unsatisfactory that even he begins to notice it. Rockwell doesn’t give him a ride back to America, of course, so he hitches a ride with the military troops that attended the exhibition. Marty then returns home to find Rachel okay in the hospital recovering. He is very smitten with her, telling her he loves her and that everything will be okay. It’s something we haven’t seen throughout the whole film. Finally, Marty asks to see the baby. They lead him to the room with all the children and he somehow immediately spots his own. They ask if he wants to hold her and he immediately breaks into tears. Streams fall down his face as “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” begins to play.
A lot of people miss this about Marty’s character but the entire film he, himself is playing a character. When he tells Kay “I’m something of a performer myself,” he really isn’t lying. Marty Mauser has an infection and it is very contagious. The infection of “dreaming big”. It causes you to fly so high in the sky you can hardly get down. You end up bringing people with you and most likely setting them up for failure. Marty inspires Kay to act again which results in terrible reviews from critics. Rockwell, although already successful, is intrigued by Marty’s boisterous attitude and wants to do marketing in the table tennis field because of him. Wally is immune to the infection, for the most part, because he knows as a black man in 1950s America, he won’t be as successful as Marty wants to be. The entire time, Marty is causing all this chaos around him but he is on a high while doing so. He is self aware and deep down knows it’s what he needs to do in order to succeed. He thinks the exhibition win is everything that matters but is immediately hit with reality right after. Once he sees that baby he is brought back to earth. He is no longer playing this part because of the affection he is showing in the hospital. He has realized he can’t keep doing it for himself but that he must do it for something bigger. For a legacy.
5/5 Pomegranate Seeds.
