Going into December, “Marty Supreme” was one of the most talked-about movies of 2025, and it hadn’t even been released yet. Directed by Josh Safdie, half of the brother duo that produced “Uncut Gems” and “Good Time,” the film was on track to be one of the best of the year, helmed by a previously successful director and a talented, star-studded cast. Before its Christmas Day opening, the movie ran an extensive, ambitious press tour centered around two words: “Dream Big.” With each new stunt, they pushed this idea further and further. Timothée Chalamet made a remix for U.K. underground rapper EsDeeKid, was a special guest on Druski’s “Coulda Been Records” auditions, sent out promo jackets to celebrities like Kylie and Kendall Jenner, Frank Ocean, Tom Brady, Susan Boyle, and Bill Nye and flew a bright orange blimp across the U.S., all in support of this “Dream Big” ethos.
The movie itself encapsulates the ambition of its slogan and press campaign. Inspired by the real-life story of table tennis champion Marty Reisman, the movie is an overwhelming odyssey of a determined man and the lengths he will go to in order to achieve success. Throughout the movie, Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet) consistently takes advantage of everyone around him. He uses actress Fay Stone’s (Gwyneth Paltrow) fame to get close to her business mogul husband for publicity and swindles money out of a local ping pong tournament, which leads to unnecessary violence. He also gets his married, pregnant lover Rachel Mizler (Odessa A’zion) caught up with a dangerous man whose dog Marty stole and lost.
Yet despite all this, the movie manages to make a terrible man someone to root for, and by the end of the movie, you find yourself cheering for his triumphs despite all of his flaws. He’s a charismatic, relentless underdog whose endless pursuit of victory makes him deeply human and relatable.
“Marty Supreme” is not just about Mauser, however. The movie employs an extensive cast of both actors and non-actors, and these bold casting decisions are what make the movie so memorable: Canadian investor Kevin O’Leary who plays Milton Rockwell, a pen industry businessman; New York cinema pioneer Abel Ferrara, who plays Ezra Mishkin, the man whose dog Marty steals; rapper and fashion designer Tyler, the Creator, who plays Wally, Marty’s best friend; and George “the Iceman” Gervin, who owns ping-pong parlor Marty practices in. The movie is full of eccentric side characters and stunt casts that allow the movie to truly flourish.
“Marty Supreme” creates a convincing atmosphere and backdrop for Marty’s central journey, not through imitation, but authenticity. They don’t just emulate New York on a soundstage; they embody it by filming on location and with New York natives. Similar to Marty, Josh Safdie took an ambitious gamble with this movie, and an expensive, unconventional movie like this could have easily been a commercial failure and a costly mistake for an emerging company like A24. But “Marty Supreme” takes its ambition and, like its main character, turns it into success.
