Marty Supreme (2025)

	Directed by: Josh Safdie	COUNTRY USA GENRE Sports/Drama NORWEGIAN TITLE Marty Supreme RUNNING TIME 150 minutes
	Produced by: Josh Safdie Ronald Bronstein Eli Bush Anthony Katagas Timothée Chalamet
	Written by: Josh Safdie Ronald Bronstein

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Marty Mauser	Timothée Chalamet	½
Kay Stone	Gwyneth Paltrow
Rachel Mizler	Odessa A'zion	½
Milton Rockwell	Kevin O'Leary	½
Wally	Tyler Okonma
Ezra Mishkin	Abel Ferrara	½
Rebecca Mauser	Fran Drescher	-
Judy	Sandra Bernhard	-
Dion Galanis	Luke Manley	-
Christopher Galanis	John Catsimatidis	-
Merle	Isaac Mizrahi	-
Ira Mizler	Emory Cohen	-
Bela Kletzki	Géza Röhrig	½
Murray Mauser	Larry "Ratso" Sloman	-
Endo	Koto Kawaguchi	-
Ram Sethi	Pico Iyer

Review

Josh Safdie ditched his brother Benny and went solo for this look at the budding table tennis scene and the hand-to-mouth existence of 1950s New York City – loosely based on the life of American table tennis player Marty Reisman. At its best, Marty Supreme has many of the same assets as Safdie's two previous films, Good Time (2017) and Uncut Gems (2019), not least the existential dilemmas and the frantic drive. The world Safdie creates around Marty is just as feverish and exhilarating, but also a tad more outlandish than in the two aforementioned films. The set-pieces here are so creative and elaborate that they at times verge on absurdity, and not always with the expected conjoined humour. Still, Timothée Chalamet's industrious, nuanced performance in the lead makes Marty's often selfish antics and outlook on life seem understandable – at times even imperative. It's a fine character study. We are drawn into his world of chasing money for his next meal, next lodging, or next tournament. The latter constitutes the film's delve into the sports genre and functions more as a subtext than as the film's true driving force. Therefore, it is ultimately somewhat disappointing that Safdie falls into rather familiar genre tropes in his depiction of table tennis. Though handled with a fair amount of seriousness and curiosity, the CGI-driven matches never feel as exciting as they're built up to be, and will almost certainly seem underwhelming to players and fans.