Marty Supreme: Was It All Just A Hype?

Marty Supreme Christmas Day

Marty Supreme (2025) is a film directed by Josh Safdie starring Timothée Chalamet as Marty Mauser. The film follows the life of a young man trying to achieve his dream of being the best table tennis player in the world, with things that get in the way. Some would say money, some would say Marty’s unlikeable personality.

Josh Safdie is known as ‘one of the Safdie brothers’. The duo of Benny and Josh worked well together until it didn’t, making Uncut Gems, Good Time, Heaven Knows What etc. They split off, Benny made ‘The Smashing Machine’, Josh made ‘Marty Supreme’. Safdie’s work often includes very stress provoking reactions; As I watched Marty Supreme I found myself gripping the seat, leaning forward, jumping at an unexpected gunshot. He has mastered the art of creating suspense and when you think everything is fine, one wrong move and the straight line isn’t so straight anymore.

Shot from Marty Supreme

Rain ping pong balls

What everyone was talking about was the marketing of this film. Timothée Chalamet, actor and producer of this film, was big on selling it. It was a surprise to see this much of the marketing work coming from the lead actor of the film. He created a skit of a zoom call talking about ways to sell the film, in this he talked about the colour orange being everywhere, a bright orange blimp flying across the sky with “Marty Supreme” on it. He hilariously had a photo of himself accepting his SAG award as his laptop background, with a folder titled “2026 WORLD TAKEOVER”. This was the beginning of one of the most talked about film marketing advertisment. But is that all it was?

As I watched this film, I couldn’t help but think about Timothée’s praise of ‘dream big’. Marty definitely dreamt, however the consequences to his actions made his dream fall apart. He wanted to achieve a win at the world championship of table tennis but due to his rudeness and unlikability he was unable to attend.

As an audience member I saw his passion, his desire and his need of getting to that end goal, however, as he started to become more and more of a bad person I stopped caring for him less and less. Stealing, lying, using and abusing is something that shouldn’t be encourage to get your dream and I feel like Timothée has been blinded, and isn’t aware that after watching the film the quote “do anything for your dream” could be seen as; it’s okay to hurt others and be selfish to get what you want. This was my take whilst watching. At first I thought the Marty Supreme jackets were cool, it hadn’t been done before and it was an interesting way of promoting. After watching the film I think it’s a bit weird that people were/are wearing a jacket with the name of a man who left his pregnant lover alone whilst he went and played a ping pong match.

Sportsman or actor?

Acting is an art which has been seen as a humble one, actors often don’t like to talk about the process as what they want you to see is the finished product. “Process is clunky” — the great Meryl Streep. As we know actors like Daniel Day Lewis have been critised on their process due to the label of ‘method acting.’ Method acting is generalised into the description of staying in character when the cameras aren’t rolling. Due to audiences knowing that some actors use this method they have been hugely looked down on because it is seen as a cheat. In the view of acting having that history of mystery Timothée admitting he wants to be “one of the greats” had some negative reactions. Interestingly the non actors I have spoken to respect his view and admire his confidence whereas the actors I have spoken to see it as an athelte’s mindset and shouldn’t be spoken about in the art of acting.

“I miss CMBYN Timmy”

I believe the personality of Marty Mauser has slipped into Timothée’s conciousness. This athelete mindset of doing what you can to achieve your dream has taken over him. In interviews he has shown hints of believing that he will win an oscar for this performance. It’s a manifestation mindset, believe it, be certain in it and it will happen. I understand wanting to promote your film and for it to be seen because of hard work from the whole cast and crew and the time and effort that has gone into it, but it is seeming to be more important to promote for award season and that little gold man. The hot topic… will he win?

Who will get that little gold man?

It seems to be a conversation of Leo or Timmy? Leonardio Dicaprio, already an oscar winner for his role in The Revenant (2015) Alejandro González Iñárritu, has just starred in Paul Thomas Andersons new film One Battle After Another. OBAA is very much an ensemble film focusing on the characters Willa (Chase Infiniti) Perfidia (Teyana Taylor) Lockjaw (Sean Penn) Sensei (Benicio del Toro) and Deandre (Regina Hall). I would be lying if I said Marty Supreme was an ensemble film, this film just followed Marty’s storyline and even in the marketing it’s all about him. The cameras follow him, the story follows him it’s all about him and his dream; Which compliments the selfishness of his character. We don’t even have time to sympathise with the other characters in the film, it’s too quick. Therefore I believe OBAA is too much involved with the other characters to have one leading actor, it doesn’t feel right. This automatically grants Timothée as the better option to win, I’m not saying that he did a better job I’m saying that it is more likely for him to win purely because the film is him.

Cover shot for One Battle After Another

Cover shot for Marty Supreme

Acting

His acting was transformative, the hair and makeup department did a very impressive job, they really had me doubting whether his unibrow was real or not aswell as the scars on his chin. Josh Safdie really used his close up shots to the max, so props to that department for making it so realistic from so close up. Timothée clearly gets very stuck into his characters, Bob Dylan he learnt the guitar for 5 years in advance, Marty he was approached in 2018 and started ping pong lessons asap. This reflects his athlete’s approach towards acting, it’s all guns blazing. I do respect that he commits and puts 150% into whatever he’s doing. He was so full of energy there was never a moment that dipped for me, he had me strung on to every word and I could follow along easily. You could tell it was easy for him to smoothly slip into that character as and when he needed to because of the amount of preparation he had done. When I first watched the trailer I thought it was going to be another A Complete Unknown, a biopic, someone going through it to become big. However I was suprised, looking at them side by side Timothée really does the two characters justice, he embraces Marty’s manipulative ways and commitment to his dream and it shows in his resting face the tension was there, even in the way he walked. He walked with purpose and drive. He embraces Bob Dylan with a shy yet confident persona. He has the energy but it is constricted within himself rather than projecting it out.

Where the hell did Gwyneth Paltrow go?

I haven’t mentioned any of the other actors in this article yet, this is because there’s not much to say about them. It wasn’t very generous to them, they did well with what they were given but their storylines failed their characters. No one achieved their dream… there was also not one strong female character, they were all there for the male gaze. Both of the leading ladies, Odessa A’zion and Gwyneth Paltrow played characters that cheated on their spouses because they wanted to sleep with Marty.

Conclusion

Josh Safdie did an impressive job of making a suspensful, action packed twist turning film. It was entertaining, engaging, packed with lots of close ups and great acting. Was it underwhelming? Yes. Was that due to marketing? Most likely. The message got lost in the action. ‘Dream big’ yet no one achieved their dreams, but I thoroughly enjoyed it pushing the marketing to the side, and I would recommend people go and watch it to form their own opinions. Art should create discussion and this film definitely has. I’m looking forward to seeing what Josh Safdie creates next.

Bring on the oscars.