Timothée Chalamet swings for cinematic glory in Marty Supreme, a dizzying plunge into the 1950s world of table tennis hustlers, reimagined with absurd flair by director Josh Safdie. Loosely based on the life of Marty Reisman, the film traces the rise and unraveling of Marty Mauser, a shoe-shop worker who transforms into a swaggering pong prodigy with delusions of grandeur and a flair for the flamboyant.
From smoky New York clubs to international championships in Britain, Marty’s journey is as much a fever dream as it is a sports saga. But this isn’t your average underdog tale. Instead of heroic arcs and training montages, Marty Supreme offers a chaotic cocktail of ambition, obsession, and scandal. The game may be ping-pong, but the stakes feel Shakespearean.
Chalamet delivers one of his boldest performances to date, fully embodying Marty’s manic charm, vulnerability, and relentless drive. He captures the high-wire energy of a man who believes his own myth even as it crumbles around him. Alongside him, Gwyneth Paltrow plays Kay Stone, a faded starlet entangled in Marty’s fantasies, adding depth to the film’s portrait of seduction and decay.
Stylistically, Safdie takes big swings: surreal sequences, screwball pacing, and moral ambiguity keep the viewer off-balance, matching the emotional chaos of its protagonist. Some may find it exhausting, others exhilarating—but no one can accuse it of playing it safe.
With a 96% rating on critical aggregate sites, Marty Supreme has already ignited buzz as a defining moment in Chalamet’s career and a bold solo outing for Safdie. It’s a film that dares to mix glamour with grime, ping with pong, and ambition with ruin.