Marty Supreme… when a film like this runs for two-and-a-half hours and basically tells someone’s rags-to-riches-type story, it’s also known as (a) a mini-series, and (b) when’s the intermission, so I can go and use the toilet, please?
Timothée Chalamet (A Complete Unknown) – who once came third in a Timothée Chalamet lookalike competition – takes the lead as Marty Mauser, in a film loosely based upon the life of the late Marty Reisman, starting in New York City, 1952, where he’s having a fling with married young woman Rachel Mizler (Odessa A’zion – Until Dawn), and when she gets pregnant, there’s the question of who’s the Daddy?
Well, enough of that, because Marty’s a cocky twat who only thinks about himself, and is trying to sell an orange ping pong ball that should be easier to see than a white one, and at this point in life, Ping Pong isn’t yet a big sport, but he thinks it will be, so wants to get ahead on plugging some ‘merch’.
Since he’s rather good at it, though, we track his progress through the London British Open, through to the 1956 Tokyo World Championships – the date for the latter I discovered while writing this, since bar the initial year, we’re not given any other dates onscreen, which is a misstep from writer/director Josh Safdie – and his battles on the court with Japanese wonder player Koto Endo (Koto Kawaguchi).
He’s trying to get ink pen magnate Milton Rockwell (Kevin O’Leary) to fund his table-top jaunts around the world – including an exhibition match in Tokyo against Koto, purely to promote those writing implements – while having some “How’s your father” with his wife, former movie siren Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow – She Said).
Despite being set in the ’50s, there’s also some ’80s music thrown in – which works very well – such as The Korgis’ Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime, Alphaville’s Forever Young, New Order’s The Perfect Kiss, and Public Image Ltd’s The Order Of Death – as well as occasionally having a score that sounds like something Jan Hammer wrote for a Michael Mann film.
Naturally, some artistic licence comes in, such as when we see Marty playing against a CGI seal, whereas in reality, Marty Reisman would take a bet to play play sitting down or blindfolded. For us, though, the Marty onscreen is very hyper, which does get exhausting, and the occasional unnecessary subplots that are randomly thrown in make the film drag a bit at times, such as when time is spent showing his friend and table tennis champion Bela Kletzki (Géza Röhrig – Undergods) talk about his times as a Holocaust survivor, who was used to diffuse bombs just outside the internment camps, noticed a beehive nearby, then smeared his body with honey and did his clothes back up, so that when he returned to the camp, he could disrobe and let his fellow prisoners lick him for nourishment…
NOTE: There are no mid- nor post-credits scenes.
Marty Supreme is in cinemas now, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 150 minutes
Release date: January 1st 2026 (following previews on December 25th 2025)
Studio: A24
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1 (Anamorphic Panavision, 16 mm (Kodak, some shots), 35 mm(Kodak Vision3 500T 5219), Super 16, Super 35)
Rating: 5.5/10
Director: Josh Safdie
Producers: Ronald Bronstein, Eli Bush, Timothée Chalamet, Anthony Katagas, Josh Safdie
Screenplay: Josh Safdie, Ronald Bronstein
Music: Daniel Lopatin
Cast:
Marty Mauser: Timothée Chalamet
Rachel Mizler: Odessa A’zion
Kay Stone: Gwyneth Paltrow
Milton Rockwell: Kevin O’Leary
Koto Endo: Koto Kawaguchi
Lloyd: Ralph Colucci
Wally: Tyler Okonma
Lawrence: George Gervin
Dion Galanis: Luke Manley
Murray Norkin: Larry ‘Ratso’ Sloman
Mariann: Mariann Tepedino
Rebecca Mauser: Fran Drescher
Judy: Sandra Bernhard
Ira Mizler: Emory Cohen
Béla Kletzki: Géza Röhrig
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.