Marty Supreme Review

It’s fair to say writer-director Josh Safdie has a type. A focus of interest that he chips away at, like Woody Allen’s outsize neurotic or Hitchcock’s icy blonde – an archetype he continually approaches and sketches and redefines, looking for new angles or insights even as the base material seems to remain the same.

In Sadie’s case, it’s the manic hustler, the charming grifter looking to get ahead (or at least achieve whatever goal they are after) with words and promises and avoid anything like responsibility or culpability for their actions at all costs. Manchildren unable to advance beyond the need to fulfill the moment’s desires.

The latest version, like Connie Nikkas or Howard Ratner, is another goal-oriented madman who will let nothing stand in his way … except for any personal pleasures which may suddenly propose themselves. The goal for Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet) is to win the world Grand Prix of table tennis, cementing himself as the greatest player in the world and an icon to millions, ready to be branded and sold.

And he is legitimately great – and knows it – selling himself to everyone he meets when he’s not letting his id take complete control. Unfortunately, he’s not quite great enough, falling prey to a Japanese phenom (Koto Kawaguchi) whose approach to life and the game could not be more different. After a bruising humiliation at the London finals, Marty has just nine months to put himself back together and unburn all of the bridges he torched on the way to the (almost) top.

It is, like its namesake, a supreme achievement and, hopefully, Safdie’s last word on the subject. Marty Supreme is electrifying from its first moment as Chalamet stomps across every threshold, demanding all eyes on him. Like the white (and sometimes orange) colored balls Marty focuses on so much, Marty Supreme pinwheels through time and space, rarely if ever stopping for a breath.

Like a shark, if it (or he) ever stops moving, it will drown, suffocated by the sheer number of plates it constantly keeps spinning. From hustling hicks for travel money to the various tournaments to dogsitting for mobsters (Abel Ferrara) to seducing rich movie stars, Marty Supreme bounces from plot to plot, spending just enough time with each to let you forget about the others until they come roaring back demanding attention, all while pushing outcomes to the point of absurdity and beyond.

And yet, as out of control as it all feels, it’s clear that Safdie is never in anything other than complete control. Working with cameraman Darius Khondji again, Safdie’s camera flies hither and yon almost as afraid of sitting still as Marty himself is. No work of Safdie’s career has felt so technically ambitious or accomplished.

Marty Supreme is an explosion of cinema from the first moment, anchored by Chalamet, who sits at the center of almost every scene and has legitimately never been better. If Marty is the most perfectly realized Safdie protagonist, Chalemet gives the first perfectly performed version of it.

And yet, amazingly, he is matched beginning to end by Odessa A’zion, who has the unenviable task of crafting a very similar character without seeming like a copy of Marty. Her Rachel is the perfect match for Marty in the best and worst ways.

It’s all a bit too much, literally, with the last hour dragging on a bit too long as more and more obstacles are thrown into Marty’s path long past the time when his flaws have become self-evident. But it’s also all so exhilarating; exhilaration drawn from the lives lived at terminal velocity, but exhilaration all the same.

Safdie offers no judgment on his characters; he neither condemns nor celebrates Marty (or his ilk), presents him as he is – brilliant, infuriating, magnetic, hollow. If there is any judgment, it’s on us as we thrill in the wreckage he wreaks wherever he goes. By the end, even as Marty attempts to defeat his nemesis again, the question isn’t whether he can become the greatest but whether the pursuit has destroyed everything that makes greatness matter.

If this is Safdie’s closing statement on the manic hustler (and I hope it is; he is more than ready to move on to some new struggle), it’s the most blistering and complete. A masterpiece of consequence that leaves the pulse racing and the stomach slightly sick, like stepping off a roller coaster, still trying to decide whether to go again or lie down. The film of the year.

MARTY SUPREME REVIEW RATING: 9 OUT OF 10

A24 will release Marty Supreme in theaters on December 25, 2025. The film has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association (MPA) for language throughout, sexual content, some violent content/bloody images, and nudity.