Marty Supreme Lives Up to the Hype
Timothée Chalamet proves why he’s already one of the greats.
Marty Supreme is not a film about ping pong. Technically, it’s a film about table tennis. But at its core, Supreme is really a film about a young kid with dreams. Big dreams. The type of dreams so big that to even utter them aloud yields resentment.
Lead actor and producer of the film, Timothée Chalamet, delivers the sterling, knockout performance of his young career thus far. Chalamet, who rose to the task as the Lisan al-Gaib in the sci-fi film Dune and worked tirelessly to recreate Bob Dylan in the biopic A Complete Unknown, here plays the protagonist Marty Mauser.
Set in New York City in the 1950s, Supreme is the story of Mauser, a shoe salesman whose singular goal in life is to become the first American table tennis champion of the world and to enjoy himself along the way. Living at home with his mother in a run-down apartment building, he impregnates a childhood friend who is desperate to attach herself to Mauser’s dreams of a better life. But Mauser is no father figure, and his cunning, conniving ways lead him across the oceans in pursuit of his ultimate goal: infamy.
Gwyneth Paltrow plays support as an aging theater actress whose loveless marriage to an ink pen tycoon, brilliantly played by that Kevin O’Leary, leads her to be swept away by the cagey and confident Mauser. Paltrow is fantastic in the role and her luminous beauty, even at 53, shines across each and every frame. In the defining role of her late career, Paltrow stuns in strapless gowns and layered tweed attire as she and the decades-younger Chalamet find an improbable but highly charged sensual energy in every scene shared together.
The market for interesting and original American films is small these days. In the age of high-fidelity, on-demand streaming services, the movie-going experience that defined the latter half of the 20th century and created a subculture of buzzy, significant indie films has waned. But 2025 has seen a smattering of strong American efforts, from P.T. Anderson’s One Battle After Another to Ari Aster’s Eddington. And Supreme takes its place among the very best of them.
Costume designer Miyako Bellizzi is operating at her full capacity here, dressing each star in vintage attire befitting the times. Chalamet’s pleated high-waisted trousers and double-breasted suits help make the 30-year-old actor look mature and sophisticated despite his youth. The costuming alone is reason enough to see the film, and I expect Bellizzi to be a favorite to win this year’s top prize for attire at the Oscars.
Legendary production designer Jack Fisk, best known for his fruitful relationship with American auteurs Terrence Malick, David Lynch, and P.T. Anderson, turns in another exemplary entry in a career defined by creating iconic and sublime visual styles for America’s great visual masters. For Supreme, the 80-year-old Fisk was in charge of decorating soundstages and creating elaborate sets from New York City to Japan. Thanks to his meticulous work, the film looks immaculate. Heavy blacks, saturated blues, and luminous creams make the New York City of old come alive again.
The director, Josh Safdie, is one half of the brother team that created Uncut Gems and Good Time, two masterpieces of new American cinema that have made the pair the darlings of indie filmmaking. Josh’s brother Benny debuted his own first feature this October, the Smashing Machine, an Oscar vehicle for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. By my estimation, the film failed to live up to its months-long hype and suggested the pair might be at their very best when working together. But the wild success of Supreme, which is earning rave reviews across the industry, proves Josh can hold his own.
Perhaps the most enthralling aspect of the film, however, is owed to the genre-bending work of musician Daniel Lopatin, the electronic music pioneer better known by his stage name Oneohtrix Point Never. Using mostly synthesizers, Lopatin’s hazy soundtrack is a lush mix of psychedelic, ambient, and austere techno tones that similarly helped create the otherworldly atmosphere that paced and made Uncut Gems one of the most inspired American films of all time. Here, Lopatin does the same, mismatching the electronic aura of the new age with the brilliant costuming and architecture of the old world. It shouldn’t work, but it does, and it adds a level of uniqueness not often found in big-budget affairs.
With the release of Supreme over Christmas week, A24, the American film studio best known for producing buzzy, creative films by up-and-coming directors, earned its biggest box office opening since its founding 13 years ago in New York City. The film has also become the third-biggest Christmas Day opening of all time for an R-rated film.
The hype surrounding the film is mostly owed to Chalamet, who has openly stated his desire to be considered one of the great actors of all time. He embarked on a whirlwind media tour in support of the film, popping up at a screening of the film, in character during a rap video with up-and-coming Liverpool artist EsDeeKid, and even atop the Sphere in Las Vegas. His exhilarating performance and unyielding promotion of Supreme as “an American film” proves he is at the very top of new talents in the film world.Clocking in at a nearly three-hour runtime, Supreme is a film that could easily find lapses in momentum but never loses its audience. The rapid, machine-gun style editing is fitting for a kid on the run, and I never once lost interest in the plot. I can’t say enough about Chalamet. He is a revelation here. If he hadn’t already proved himself one of the greats of the modern age, he’s done it with this film. See it in theaters.
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