Marty Supreme

Marty Supreme is a 2025 American sports comedy-drama film produced and directed by Josh Safdie, who co-wrote the script with Ronald Bronstein, loosely inspired by the life and career of American table tennis player Marty Reisman.^[7][8] Starring and co-produced by Timothée Chalamet, the film also features Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A'zion, Kevin O'Leary, Tyler Okonma, Abel Ferrara and Fran Drescher in supporting roles.

Marty Supreme premiered at the 2025 New York Film Festival on October 6, 2025,^[9] and is scheduled to be released in the United States by A24 on December 25, 2025. The film has received widespread acclaim, with many critics praising the direction, screenplay, score and editing. Chalamet's performance in the film has also been praised as a career-best and career-defining work.^[10][11][12] The film was named one of the top ten films of 2025 by the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute. It received three nominations at the 83rd Golden Globe Awards: Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, Best Actor for Chalamet and Best Screenplay for Safdie and Bronstein.

Marty Supreme is a table tennis drama set in New York City during the 1950s, where up-and-coming table tennis star Marty Mauser goes to hell and back in pursuit of greatness.^[13][14]

Josh Safdie's interest in table tennis began in his youth, as his grandparents often had "eccentric Jewish immigrant Lower East Side characters" playing the sport at their house.^[15] In 2018, his wife and executive producer on the film, Sara Rossein, bought a copy of tennis player Marty Reisman's 1974 autobiography The Money Player, thinking Safdie would enjoy it. Safdie was in conversations with Timothée Chalamet at the time, as they had recently become friends, and presented him the project by focusing on Reisman's physical similarities to the actor. Chalamet accepted the role and began taking table tennis lessons that same year.^[15][16] Chalamet named Robert Rossen's The Hustler (1961) and Martin Scorsese's The Color of Money (1986) as references for the film.^[17]

In December 2023, Chalamet said his next film would involve table tennis.^[18] By July 2024, the project was confirmed as Marty Supreme, to be directed by Safdie, his first solo project without his brother Benny since The Pleasure of Being Robbed in 2008.^[13] Safdie and Ronald Bronstein wrote the script based on Reisman's life, though "sources close to the production" called the story "a fictionalized original, rather than a biopic".^[7] They wrote backstories for every person that appeared on the film.^[14]

Safdie contacted veteran production designer Jack Fisk to work on the project. To match the film's 1950s New York City setting, Fisk and his team built several pieces to block modern buildings and signs, including a delivery truck for Jewish newspaper The Forward, using old reference photos for the design. The original Forward building also appeared in the background of several scenes alongside the truck.^[19] Fisk was able to build the Lawrence's Broadway Table Tennis Club, which was demolished, with help from blueprints and black-and-white photos. Rossein was able to get a 16mm recording of the building which gave them an idea of the color palette.^[19] Even though Norkin's Shoe Shop, where Marty works, was a real location, the crew built modular units of the storefront to avoid a modern hotel nearby.^[19] For the scenes set in Auschwitz, they built the barracks inside the same New Jersey house they used to film a scene featuring a farm.^[19] Safdie wanted the city to feel real and became obsessed with the garbage on the streets, set decorator Adam Willis proposed wetting the trash, so the actors felt the grit of the environment their characters lived in.^[20]

Principal photography began in New York City on September 23, 2024, with set photos of Chalamet released the following week.^[21][22] Production wrapped on December 5, 2024.^[23] Additional filming took place in Japan in February 2025.^[24] Only key members of the crew travelled to the country, and a Japanese crew was hired, they only had a week of prepping before shooting.^[25] Cinematographer Darius Khondji, who worked with Safdie on Uncut Gems (2019), shot Marty Supreme on 35mm film, using Arriflex cameras and vintage anamorphic lenses^[26][27] to recreate the feel of the 1950s.^[25] Most of the film was shot with two cameras together.^[25] The film's $60–70 million budget made it A24's most-expensive film, surpassing Civil War (2024).^[28][4]

Chalamet said that Safdie encouraged him to do some of his own stunts in the movie.^[29] The director wanted Chalamet's eyes to look smaller, so he made him wear prescription glasses with contact lenses underneath, which impaired his vision temporarily.^[30] For the ping-pong scenes, Chalamet trained for six years and was coached by Diego Schaaf and former American Olympian Wei Wang.^[31][32] A post credits scene showing Marty's future featuring Chalamet in aging prosthetics was filmed, but not used in the final cut.^[33]

Safdie wrote the roles played by Timothee Chalamet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Tyler Okonma and Abel Ferrara with them in mind.^[34][35] Although it was rumored that Julia Roberts had been offered Paltrow's part first, but turned it down.^[36] Khondji said the film featured around 140 non-actors, including French highwire artist Philippe Petit.^[32] Casting Director Jennifer Venditti, had previously scouted Isaac Simon and Odessa A'zion; while Luke Manley was discovered by the team on social media; Isaac Mizrahi was suggested by Safdie, who knew them.^[37] Venditti scouted Ralph Colucci at a horse track, as indicated by the backstory Safdie had written for his character.^[14] Yale professor Paul Grimstad appeared in the film at the behest of Bronstein, as they were roommates in the late 1990s.^[38] Mitchell Wenig played a henchman, he had previously appeared in Safdie's Uncut Gems and Adam Sandler: Love You.^[20] Former basketball player Joe Johnson was supposed to appear in the film and was flown out to New York, but never showed up to set.^[39]

The film was finished on the eve of its premiere at the New York Film Festival.^[40] The color grading was done by Yvan Lucas at Company 3. Alongside Khondji, they created a 4K DCP, as well as developing 70mm and 35mm prints.^[25]

The score was composed by electronic artist Daniel Lopatin. Lopatin, who had already worked with the Safdie brothers in their previous films, first read the script in 2023.^[41] Lopatin used a Spotify playlist to guide him through the composition, which included music from artists such as New Order, Tears for Fears, Fats Domino and Constance Demby.^[41] Safdie and Lopatin worked on the score for around 10 weeks at a studio space in Manhattan. Mixing took place at Electric Lady Studios in New York City.^[41] Musician Weyes Blood provided background vocals for the soundtrack.^[42] Peter Gabriel's song "I Have the Touch" is featured in the film, which Gabriel was thankful for.^[43]

The film had its world premiere as a "secret screening" in the Main Slate of the 2025 New York Film Festival, on October 6, 2025.^[9] It is scheduled to be released in the United States on December 25, 2025 by A24.^[44]

To promote the film, Chalamet posted on his social media a staged recording of a Zoom call with A24's marketing team, where he presented increasingly ridiculous ideas to promote Marty Supreme. It was written and directed by Chalamet himself.^[33] The meta-video was praised by GQ as a "pitch-perfect, dryly hilarious satire of both corporate meeting culture and movie star narcissism".^[45][46] One of the ideas presented in the video was actually realized: flying a bright orange rented blimp (tailnumber N614LG) with "Marty Supreme" imprinted on each side across the United States. As of today, the airship can be seen flying around Los Angeles, taking off and landing at LGB as its primary base. ^[47][48] Chalamet's visual artist drawing of the blimp in the video was also featured as a Google easter egg when searching for the actor or the film on the search engine. He also collaborated with clothing brand Nahmias to design merch inspired by the film, including a jacket that Chalamet sent to athletes and celebrities he considered to be "great", such as Misty Copeland, Michael Phelps, Bill Nye, Tom Brady, and Lamine Yamal, and other celebrities such as Kid Cudi, Kendall Jenner, Justin Bieber and his wife Hailey Bieber, and Chalamet's girlfriend Kylie Jenner were also seen sporting the jacket.^[49][50][51] At first, it was conceived to be worn only by the actor during the press tour, but after becoming involved, A24 decided to also release it to the public. In November, a temporary pop-up store was set up in New York City, which Chalamet visited.^[52] On December 19, 2025, Chalamet posted a video on social media of him appearing on a remix of EsDeeKid's "4 Raws," adding a verse of his own to the song in which he mentions the film. This came after rumours that Chalamet was the identity behind the masked rapper.^[53][54] Tyler Okonma's Golf Wang street-wear brand sold hoodies, t-shirts and hats branded with Marty Supreme through their website.^[55]

Marty Supreme began its theatrical release with a limited release in six theaters in Los Angeles and New York City on December 19. It made $875,000 in its opening weekend, giving the film a per-theater average of $145.933, the highest ever for A24, the best average of the year and the best since La La Land (2016).^[56][57][58]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 95% of 128 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "Serving up Timothée Chalamet at his most infectiously charismatic, Marty Supreme is a propulsive epic that realizes its sky-high aspirations even while it critiques its indelible hero's toxic ambition."^[59] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 91 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".^[60]

Chalamet's performance received critical acclaim, with some commentators calling it a career-defining turn.^[61][62][63] David Ehrlich of IndieWire referred to it as "one of the most colossal movie performances of the 21st century,"^[64] while Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com called it the best performance of Chalamet's career.^[65] Caryn James of BBC described Chalamet as "engaging" and wrote that the film was fresh, funny, and exhilarating largely because of his presence.^[66] Rolling Stone critic David Fear likened the performance to the early work of Al Pacino and Dustin Hoffman, describing it as "a constant state of motion even when standing still."^[67] Chief film critic Kevin Maher of The Times wrote that Chalamet channeled the classic roles of Robert De Niro through an intense portrayal of ambition and ego.^[68] Odessa A'zion was also singled out by Chris Evangelista of /Film and Ian Sandwell of Digital Spy, who described her performance as "immensely charming" and the strongest outside of Chalamet.^[69][70]The performances of Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin O'Leary, Tyler Okonma, Abel Ferrara, and Koto Kawaguchi were also praised.^[71][72]

The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw gave the film five out of five stars, calling it "a spectacular screwball ping-pong nightmare." He praised the film's pacing, describing it as "a marathon sprint of gonzo calamities and uproar."^[73] David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter described the film as "Uncut Gems meets Catch Me If You Can." Rooney praised the film's casting in mixing seasoned actors with non-traditional performers such as O'Leary, Okonma, and Kawaguchi, comparing the approach to Ken Jacobs' 1955 documentary short, Orchard Street.^[74] Marshall Shaffer of Slant Magazine gave the film four out of four stars, writing: "Marty Supreme offers a clear-eyed look at the hollow promise of American self-reliance. [Safdie and Bronstein] see through the terminology used to sell outsiders on social advancement—purpose, obligation, sacrifice—as tools that reinforce the stranglehold of the rich."^[75] Critics also praised Safdie's direction, with Maher highlighting his "effective bravado" and confident directorial approach.^[68] Shaffer commended Safdie's collaboration with Ronald Bronstein on the screenplay and editing."^[75] Fear acclaimed Jack Fisk's production design and Daniel Lopatin's musical score.^[67] Along with the score, Darius Khondji's cinematography was lauded by Jamie Graham of Empire.^[76]

In a more critical review, William Bibbiani of TheWrap felt the story became arbitrary by the end.^[77] Stephanie Zacharek of Time also felt the film relied too much on amorality and lacked an emotional core, stating: "For Safdie, a movie seems to be just an excuse for a million and one digressions and distractions; he'll throw anything at the wall to see if it sticks."^[78]

Marty Supreme has appeared on many critics' top ten lists for 2025.

• Marty Supreme at IMDb