Marty Supreme is exactly the kind of big, brash, slightly unhinged swing that feels tailor-made for co-writer/director Josh Safdie and for Timothée Chalamet at this precise moment in his career. A kinetic, sweaty, frequently overwhelming sports comedy-drama, the film barrels through 1950s New York and far beyond with the same single-minded obsession as its protagonist, a man who refuses to believe that the world’s indifference is a verdict rather than a challenge.
Fresh off his Golden Globe win for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy, Chalamet delivers a performance that feels both career-defining and deliberately abrasive. As Marty Mauser, a hustler, dreamer, and professional table tennis savant, Chalamet leans hard into arrogance, charm, and self-mythologising bravado. Marty is not designed to be likable in any conventional sense – he lies, steals, manipulates, and burns bridges with Olympic-level efficiency – but Chalamet makes him compulsively watchable. The role demands someone who can oscillate between boyish desperation and messianic confidence within the same breath, and Chalamet meets the challenge head-on.
It’s difficult not to view Chalamet’s recent, slightly obnoxious, headline-grabbing press run through the same lens. In hindsight, it plays less like ego and more like method – an extension of Marty’s worldview, where belief is performance and confidence is currency. If that’s the case, it’s a gamble that’s paid off. With Marty Supreme, Chalamet cements himself not just as a prestige actor, but as a genuine movie star (if he wasn’t considered one already) – and it’s easy to see why he’s now being widely tipped as an Oscar frontrunner.
Safdie’s direction is pure controlled chaos. Shooting on 35mm, with Darius Khondji’s restless camera rarely allowing the audience to settle, the film pulses with manic energy. Table tennis matches are staged like prize fights, backroom hustles feel dangerous, and Marty’s relentless forward motion becomes the film’s heartbeat. Safdie is less interested in sports triumph than in obsession itself; what it costs, who it flattens, and how easily ambition curdles into self-delusion.
The supporting cast on hand are also game for the cause. Gwyneth Paltrow is quietly devastating as Kay Stone, a former actress who sees in Marty both a lifeline and a mirror of the dreams she abandoned, Odessa A’zion brings volatility and wounded intelligence to Rachel, a character whose devotion is as self-destructive as Marty’s ambition, whilst Tyler, the Creator makes an easy, lived-in impression as Wally, Marty’s closest ally and occasional conscience, grounding the film’s more unhinged detours with warmth and humor.
That said, Marty Supreme is not without its indulgences. At 150 minutes, the film occasionally mistakes excess for necessity. Safdie’s fascination with narrative sprawl sometimes works against momentum, most notably in the extended subplot involving criminal Ezra Mishkin’s (Abel Ferrara) dog. While thematically aligned with the film’s ideas about hustling, consequence, and moral drift, it ultimately feels like a digression the movie could survive without.
Similarly, Marty himself can be a difficult character to sit with for long stretches. His refusal to grow, reflect, or soften may alienate some viewers – though that discomfort is very much the point. Safdie and co-writer Ronald Bronstein (husband to If I Had Legs I’d Kick You‘s helmer, Mary Bronstein) aren’t interested in redemption arcs or tidy moral reckonings. Marty doesn’t become better; he becomes louder, more exposed, and more human in his contradictions.
In the end, Marty Supreme is a thrilling, messy, exhausting ride – a film about belief as both weapon and liability. It captures the intoxicating rush of chasing a dream no one else respects, while never pretending that such obsession comes without collateral damage. Like its hero, the film is abrasive, funny, excessive, and impossible to ignore. And much like Marty Mauser himself, it doesn’t ask for permission – it demands attention, then dares you to keep up.
FOUR STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Marty Supreme is screening in Australian theatres from January 22nd, 2026.
