Marty Supreme is my first introduction to the Safdie Brothers’ films. Josh and Benny Safdie decided to go their separate ways to make two different sports-themed movies. Josh Safdie took on this table-tennis dramedy, while his younger brother Benny opted to direct Dwayne Johnson in the MMA-fighter biopic, Smashing Machine.

I was intrigued to check this out after reading that the character was inspired by a real ping-pong hustler from NYC’s Lower East Side named Marty Reisman, even though the film isn’t really a biopic. Timothée Chalamet has been receiving all sorts of praise portraying one unsympathetic character after another; in 2024, he took on the role of Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown, where Joan Baez referred to him as an a**hole. But honestly, Dylan is a saint compared to Marty, a working-class New Yorker in the early 1950s, toiling away in a shoe store with gargantuan dreams of becoming a ping pong star.

He declines a managerial role offered by his uncle, who runs the shoe store, while sneaking around to hook up with his married childhood friend Rachel (Odessa A’zion) and plotting his way to London for a ping pong tournament. I do admire those who have big dreams and are willing to go the extra mile to achieve them… but to a point. Marty will stop at nothing to get what he wants, which appears to be fame and fortune, even going as far as robbing his own uncle. His arrogance is as notable as his impressive paddle skills.

Once he arrives in London, he gripes about the budget hotel he’s stuck in and somehow manages to con his way into the Ritz Hotel, where he charms a past-her-prime actress, Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow). How a brash, scrawny kid with a pockmarked face can charm so many people is the stuff of movies’ make-believe. Next, he sets his sights on Kay’s husband, Milton Rockwell (Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary), whom he sees as his financial ticket. During a few international tours, Marty briefly teams up with another ping-pong champion and Holocaust survivor, Bela Kletzki (Géza Röhrig). I would have loved to learn more about Kletzki; he seems like an intriguing character with a dark past, but there’s no time for that. There’s still plenty of hustling and scheming ahead.

Chalamet is in almost every scene, yet we never really learn who Marty is beyond his big dreams. He shows little gratitude to those who care about him, like his uncle and his mom (Fran Drescher). I get that a lot of kids want to break free from financially dependent parents, but he’s almost hostile towards her. That stifling relationship clearly fuels his delusions of grandeur to make it big. He’s truly in full scoundrel mode here, stirring up chaos everywhere and creating issues for his friends, like his taxi-driver buddy Wally (Tyler Okonma), yet he stays completely unrepentant and selfish. I’ve cheered for shady characters in films before, even the bad guys, but Marty just rubs me the wrong way. The fact that the 30-year-old actor thinks very highly of his own ‘top of the line’ performance is even more off-putting.

That said, I applaud Chalamet for his commitment; he actually trained for seven years to play ping-pong. His energy is through the roof, and it’s obvious he put everything into this role in pursuit of greatness. While the performances are good, the women here feel like superficial representations rather than fully developed characters. They serve as mere pawns for Marty throughout his journey, but not all of them are innocent, of course; even Rachel resorts to deceit and manipulation at her poor husband’s (Emory Cohen) expense. As the movie progresses, it becomes increasingly frantic and off the rails. The bloodiest mess features a mobster named Ezra Mishkin (Abel Ferrara) and his beloved dog, Moses. Perhaps Safdie is trying to make some sort of Old Testament allegory with Marty going in circles, trying to reach his elusive ‘promised land.’

Written by Safdie and Ronald Bronstein, the script is filled with relentless action that stretches from New York to Japan. The ping pong scenes are well-choreographed and pretty entertaining to watch, especially the competition in Japan between Marty and his main rival Endo (Koto Kawaguchi). Safdie is making a mark by creating a major narrative feature film that specifically highlights the underground scene of table tennis. I also find the anachronistic song selections amusing, featuring ’80s hits like Tears for Fears’ Everybody Wants to Rule the World (that’s quite on the nose) and Peter Gabriel’s I Have the Touch.

I caught this movie back in December before the buzz went into overdrive. Since then, I’ve seen it getting tons of praise, which I find quite baffling. But every year, there’s always a couple of films that I just don’t understand the hype for, and this year, it’s Marty Supreme. Despite all the action on screen, it doesn’t really say much in the end. The finale that suggests Marty might be a changed man doesn’t feel earned. By the time the movie wrapped up after an overlong 2.5 hours, I was left exhausted and exasperated.

What do you think of Marty Supreme?