My first cinema experience of 2026 . I am hopeful that this will be a strong year because cinemas need some big hits but Marty Supreme isn’t necessarily going to be a blockbuster but I saw this at 4:20pm on New Years Day and there were about 30 people which is more than I was expecting. This is directed by the other half of the Safdie brothers. Benny gave us the mildly interesting The Smashing Machine and what we get with Josh’s take on a confident if somewhat flawed sportsman.
The film tells the story of Marty Mauser who is someone who is quite good at table tennis and believes he could be the greatest ever. He just needs money to get him to the world championships in Japan but on his way there he comes across a comedy of errors that seems to come up to stop Marty from achieving his destiny. Whenever he talks about asking money from people he talks like his victory is a foregone conclusion.
As good as Timothee Chalamet is, it is quite hard to really like Marty. Yes he is confident and is good at table tennis, the way that he treats people around him is not the greatest. The way that he reacts when Rachel says that she is pregnant and Marty immediately says that it isn’t his. Like he is trying to dismiss it quickly so he can focus. His arrogance when he is speaking to Milton means that he sort of deserves what comes to him later on in the film. Odessa A’zion is quite good as Rachel although her character is rather limited but A’zion manages to make her seem more interesting than she actually is. She really only gets something emotionally substantial when she is in the hospital bed after being shot and given birth and Marty is prepared to be a father. A’zion has good chemistry with Chalamet and it feels like their characters belong together because they seem to have the same flaws and aspirations.
Kevin O’Leary is technically the villain of the movie as Milton. Being the rich businessman who after being disrespected by Marty is at one point only willing to pay the airfare for him to get to Tokyo if he can spank Marty with a table tennis paddle. You can sort of see things from Milton’s perspective and especially with the knowledge that Marty is knowingly sleeping with Kay. Gwyneth Paltrow plays Kay who is married to Milton and pops up every so often to have a sex scene with Chalamet but like Rachel, the character of Kay is made to be more interesting because of Paltrow. Rachel is having an affair and you would expect that there would be some confrontation between Milton and Marty but there isn’t and so it does feel like Kay is in the plot to give some romantic stuff for Marty to do.
This film does come across a bit too Oscar-bait like for me but time will tell whether it worked or not. I suspect Chalamet, Paltrow and A’zion will at least get nominations but I think that it will certainly be in the conversation and rightly so. Marty Supreme is a strong start to the year. The idea that Marty is a real person but some if not most of the events were made up or exaggerated is an interesting spin of this type of movie. You are using real people but not restricting yourself to a set of people or events. I could grow to like this sort of film.
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