Marty Supreme is a 2025 American sports comedy-drama film directed by Josh Safdie who co-wrote with Ronald Bronstein. Set in the 1950s, it follows fictional American table tennis player Marty Mauser (loosely based on Marty Reisman) in his quest to become world champion. Timothée Chalamet stars in the title role; with Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A'zion, Kevin O'Leary, Tyler Okonma, Abel Ferrara, and Fran Drescher appearing in supporting roles.
Safdie and co-writer Bronstein began developing the film in 2018 after Safdie was given a copy of Marty Reisman's 1974 memoir, The Money Player: The Confessions of America's Greatest Table Tennis Champion and Hustler. Safdie met with Chalamet in 2018 and offered him the lead role. Following a multi-year development period, the project was officially announced in July 2024; it marks Safdie's first solo directorial effort since The Pleasure of Being Robbed (2008). Cinematographer Darius Khondji shot the film on 35 mm film stock, and Safdie's regular collaborator Daniel Lopatin composed its score. Production design was led by Jack Fisk.
Marty Supreme premiered as a "secret screening" at the 2025 New York Film Festival on October 6, 2025, followed by a U.S. theatrical release by A24 on December 25, where it received widespread acclaim. The National Board of Review and the American Film Institute named it one of the top ten films of the year. The film has grossed $134 million worldwide, becoming A24's second-highest-grossing film. It received nine nominations at the 98th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director (Safdie) and Best Actor (Chalamet) and eleven at the 79th British Academy Film Awards, including Best Film, Best Director (Safdie), Best Actor (Chalamet) and Best Supporting Actress (A'zion). It also earned three nominations at the 83rd Golden Globe Awards and 32nd Actor Awards. Chalamet won a Golden Globe Award and Critics' Choice Award for his performance.
In London, Marty, unhappy with the players' barracks, instead stays at the Ritz Hotel, where he seduces former actress Kay Stone and meets her wealthy husband, pen magnate Milton Rockwell. Marty defeats Kletzki in the semi-finals but loses the final to Koto Endo, a deaf Japanese player using a sponge racket. Rockwell offers Marty an exhibition match against Endo in Tokyo before the World Championships, but Marty declines upon learning he would be expected to Match fixing the match to appease Japanese audiences. Rockwell tells Marty that he is already a vaudeville performer, since he is touring internationally with Kletzki as a novelty act for the Harlem Globetrotters.
Back in New York, Marty is arrested for stealing from Murray but escapes. He reconnects with Rachel, who is pregnant and who claims the baby is his. While staying in a run-down hotel with his friend Wally, a taxi driver, Marty discovers he has been banned from the World Championship unless he pays a $1,500 fine to the International Table Tennis Association (ITTA) for fraudulently expensing his Ritz stay. Marty's bathtub collapses through the floor, injuring mobster Ezra Mishkin, who pays Marty to take his dog Moses to a veterinarian. Marty instead hustles patrons at a New Jersey bowling alley with Wally to raise the money. The bowlers later attack them at a gas station but Marty and Wally escape, damaging the taxi and setting the station on fire. Moses runs away during the scuffle.
Rockwell returns to New York, having financed a play to relaunch Kay's career. After having sex with Kay, Marty steals her necklace, but after an attempt to pawn it, he learns it is costume jewelry. Rachel comes to Marty with a black eye claiming her husband Ira has beaten her, prompting Marty to assault him. Marty and Rachel stay with Dion, who reveals he had produced the novelty balls but Marty failed to follow up. Marty and Rachel steal Dion's car and attempt to find Moses to extort money from Mishkin, but flee after being shot at by a farmer who has taken Moses in. Dion throws them out for stealing and damaging his car and discards the novelty balls. Marty learns Rachel faked her injury to manipulate him and abandons her. Rachel tells Ira the baby is not his, and he throws her out.
At the opening of Kay's play, Marty apologizes for stealing her jewelry. Though she sees through him, Kay tells Marty to meet her that night in Central Park, where she gives him a valuable necklace to pay his fine and travel. Marty and Kay begin having sex in the park but are soon caught by police, and use the necklace to bribe the officers into releasing them. Kay offers him another necklace, but receives a poor review during the afterparty for the play and breaks down, leaving her indisposed. Marty then begs Rockwell to revive the Tokyo exhibition offer, and Rockwell agrees on the condition that Marty submit to a humiliating public spanking.
Before Marty leaves, he and Rachel are kidnapped by Mishkin after Rachel attempts to con him with another dog. Mishkin forces them to take him to the farmhouse where Moses was found. A shootout leaves the farmer, Mishkin, and his men dead, and Rachel wounded. Marty discovers the money is mostly worthless clippings. He takes Rachel to the hospital as she goes into premature labor, and then leaves for Tokyo.
In Japan, Marty is told he is too late to enter the World Championship even if he pays his fine. He loses the exhibition match as planned, but when Rockwell plans to further humiliate him by making him kiss a pig onstage, Marty announces that the match was a sham and demands a real rematch, to which Endo agrees; Marty narrowly wins. Refused passage home by Rockwell, Marty flies back with U.S. Army soldiers, reunites with his mother at the hospital, confesses his love to a recovering Rachel, and breaks down in tears upon meeting his newborn son.
In December 2023 Chalamet said his next film would involve table tennis. By July 2024, the project was confirmed as Marty Supreme, to be directed by Safdie, his first solo project without his brother Benny Safdie since The Pleasure of Being Robbed in 2008. 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". They wrote backstories for every person that appeared on the film. The film was produced by Central Pictures and IPR.VC in addition to A24.
The former basketball player Joe Johnson was flown to New York to appear in the film, but did not arrive on set. Professional ping-pong player Wally Green was cast in a small speaking role, but his scene was cut. Venditti set up a ping-pong table to use during improvisational setups as part of the casting process. During post-production, Safdie got Robert Pattinson to cameo as the voice of an off-screen British Open umpire. Mordechai Rubinstein, a New York City fashion blogger, and friend of Safdie, appears uncredited as a shoe store salesman. Kim Hastreiter, co-founder of Paper, a New York City magazine, was cast by Vendetti and appears uncredited as a shoe store customer.
Cinematographer Darius Khondji, who worked with Safdie on Uncut Gems (2019), shot Marty Supreme mostly on 35mm film (although there were some digital shots), using Arriflex cameras and vintage Panavision C Series and B Series anamorphic lenses to recreate the feel of the 1950s and atmosphere of the movie. Khondji explained: "I knew we were going to be filming very close to (the actors), as if we were using a magnifier ... and so, we selected lenses that would take us in this direction, mostly very long anamorphics, almost like having binoculars or a magnifier when looking at the characters. We used long zooms, too." Khondji used 65mm, 75mm or 100mm anamorphic long lenses for medium or medium-tight shots. Most of the film was shot with two cameras together. The $60–70 million budget made it A24's most-expensive film, surpassing Civil War (2024).
Chalamet said that Safdie encouraged him to do some of his own stunts in the movie. For example, according to Kevin O'Leary, a stunt double was initially intended to stand in for Chalamet in the paddle spanking scene opposite O'Leary, but Chalamet insisted on performing it himself. The prop paddle then broke during the first take, so a real paddle had to be used. O'Leary came up with one of his last lines of dialogue, in which he refers to himself as a vampire. In January 2026, during a conversation with Sean Baker for the A24 podcast, Safdie revealed one of the original ideas for the ending was for an older Marty to be taking his granddaughter to a concert in the 1980s, only for O'Leary's Milton Rockwell to be revealed as an actual vampire and bite Marty in the neck. This ending, originally suggested by O'Leary, was initially supported by Safdie and Bronstein, who went as far to make "digital teeth" for O'Leary, but was ultimately rejected by studio executives. O'Leary also suggested that the film should end with A'zion's character dying in childbirth, which Safdie decided was too dark.
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. Make-up artist Mike Fontaine applied pockmarks, freckles and nicks to Chalamet's face to give him a more weathered, street appearance. The effect was so convincing that Paltrow thought it was real, privately suggesting to the actor that he try micro-needling to fix his acne scars. For the ping-pong scenes, Chalamet trained for months and was coached by Diego Schaaf and former American Olympian Wei Wang.
Other songs that appear in the film are:
Chalamet collaborated with the clothing brand Nahmias to design merchandise including a jacket that Chalamet sent to athletes and celebrities he considered "great", such as Susan Boyle, Tom Brady, Misty Copeland, Stephen Curry, Karl-Anthony Towns, Anthony Edwards, Patti LuPone, Bill Nye, Michael Phelps, Declan Rice, Ringo Starr and Lamine Yamal. Other celebrities such as Kid Cudi, Frank Ocean, Fakemink, Charli XCX, Kendall Jenner, Kylie Jenner, Justin Bieber and his wife Hailey Bieber were also seen sporting the jacket. 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. Tyler Okonma's Golf Wang street-wear brand sold hoodies, t-shirts and hats branded with Marty Supreme through their website.
During promotional interviews Chalamet was asked about widely reported rumours that he was the secret identity behind the masked British rapper EsDeeKid and gave non-committal answers, such as, "All will be revealed in due time." On December 19, 2025, Chalamet posted a video on social media of him appearing alongside EsDeeKid in a remix of his track "4 Raws", adding a verse of his own to the song in which he mentions Marty Supreme. In January 2026, a statue of Chalamet as Marty Mauser was unveiled at the Italian National Museum of Cinema to promote the film's release in Italy.
Marty Supreme began its limited release in six theaters in Los Angeles and New York City on December 19. It made $875,000 in its opening weekend for a per-theater average of $145,933, the highest ever for A24 and the best overall since La La Land (2016). It was projected to gross $12–20 million from 2,668 theaters over its four-day Christmas frame. It made $9.8 million on its first day of wide release (which included $2 million from Christmas Eve previews), surpassing projections and finishing second behind Avatar: Fire and Ash, over the four-day Christmas weekend with $27.3 million ($17.7 million in its traditional 3-day weekend). The film made $12.5 million, $7.6 million, and $6.6 million in its second, third and fourth weekends, becoming A24's highest-grossing film at the domestic box office.
Marty Supreme also became A24's highest-grossing film in the UK, earning $8.6 million as of January 6, 2026.
Chalamet's performance received acclaim, with some commentators calling it career-defining. David Ehrlich of IndieWire referred to it as "one of the most colossal movie performances of the 21st century", while Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com called it the best performance of Chalamet's career. Caryn James of the BBC described Chalamet as "engaging" and wrote that the film was fresh, funny, and exhilarating largely because of his presence. 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." IGN critic Michael Calabro wrote that Chalamet's portrayal had the same intensity Pacino displayed in Dog Day Afternoon, combined with the charisma of Paul Newman in The Sting. 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. 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. The performances of Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin O'Leary, Tyler Okonma, Abel Ferrara, and Koto Kawaguchi were also praised.
The Guardians Peter Bradshaw gave Marty Supreme five out of five stars, calling it "a spectacular screwball ping-pong nightmare". He praised the pacing, describing it as "a marathon sprint of gonzo calamities and uproar". David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter described the film as " Uncut Gems meets Catch Me If You Can". Rooney praised the 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. Marshall Shaffer of Slant Magazine gave the film four out of four, writing: " Marty Supreme offers a clear-eyed look at the hollow promise of American self-reliance. Safdie see through the terminology used to sell outsiders on social advancement—purpose, obligation, sacrifice—as tools that reinforce the stranglehold of the rich."
Critics praised Safdie's direction, with Maher highlighting his "effective bravado" and confident directorial approach. Shaffer commended Safdie's collaboration with Ronald Bronstein on the screenplay and editing. Fear acclaimed Jack Fisk's production design and Daniel Lopatin's musical score. Along with the score, Darius Khondji's cinematography was lauded by Jamie Graham of Empire. Filmmakers Olivier Assayas, Joe Dante, A.V. Rockwell, Joachim Rønning, Paul Schrader, Celine Song, Juel Taylor, and Gints Zilbalodis chose the film as one of their favorites of the year. In a more critical review, William Bibbiani of TheWrap felt the story became arbitrary by the end. 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."
Post-production
Music
Release
Marketing
Reception
Box office
Critical response
Accolades
See also
External links
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