Marty Supreme (2025)

Josh Safdie has a history of making me care about what happens to (mostly) terrible people: Daddy Longlegs (2009), Good Time (2017), Uncut Gems (2019), and now…Marty Supreme (2025). Well played, Safdie. Well played.

The film follows Marty, a shoe salesman with an obsession to be the world’s greatest table tennis player. His desire to win is so strong that nothing, and nobody, will get in his way. Including those who are close to him.

What makes the film work is Safdie’s remarkable ability to trap you inside Marty’s mind without ever fully endorsing his choices. You cringe at his decisions, you dread the inevitable fallout, and yet you lean forward because Safdie knows how to make desperation cinematic.

The film has that signature Safdie anxiety as well, enhanced through the use of buzzing fluorescent lights, people talking over each other, the high intensity of the competition scenes, and the problematic decisions Marty makes in his interpersonal relationships.

Timothée Chalamet’s performance is what keeps all of this moving. It’s fully committed. He doesn’t soften Marty or ask you to excuse him. He just makes you understand him, which is somehow worse. The supporting cast is solid as well, with some Safdie familiars showing up in unexpected places.

Marty Supreme isn’t without its frustrations. At two-and-a-half hours, the chaos is occasionally running on fumes, and Marty’s late-film emotional turn asks for grace that hasn’t been earned. But then again, maybe that’s the point.

Messy and uncomfortable in the best way. This is what cinema looks like when someone is trying to capture the contradictions of a complicated life without trying to sugarcoat it.