Marty Supreme

Marty Supreme (2025) might just be my favorite movie of the year, and I don’t say that lightly or easily. Don’t get me wrong, 2025 was an incredible year for cinephiles and casual viewers alike with massive successful releases like Sinners, One Battle After Another, and Avatar: Fire And Ash alongside smaller and equally meaningful ones like Train Dreams, Sentimental Value, and Sorry, Baby. I mean the list truly goes on and on, I could write a book on how good this year was for movies. There’s so many potential candidates for ‘favorite film of the year,’ but without a doubt, for the reason I’ll outline below, Marty Supreme is the one for me.

I’m getting ahead of myself; this isn’t about the film landscape at large. This is about a 1950s ping-pong sports drama period piece from beloved production company, A24. An original story set in one of the greatest cities in the world, from one of the best directors of our generation, starring one of the best young actors of all time. It has an unbelievable score and soundtrack, lightning fast pacing, terrific performances beyond the titular protagonist, and (often overlooked) a killer marketing campaign that really resonated with me.

– As a quick aside, I studied marketing in college and have a deep appreciation for the innovation and risk-taking of that marketing campaign amidst the increasing cinema-going resistance. Movies ‘have to’ play it safe, show trailer snippets on TikTok, set up billboards around the city, have press tours and junkets where celebrities from the film eat hot wings and take lie detector tests. I get it, it’s tried and true. But it still doesn’t get butts in seats. The A24 team completely flips the script with something straight out of SNL, a hilarious staged ‘marketing meeting zoom call’ led by none other than Mr. Mauser himself, Timothée Chalamet. If you haven’t seen it, what are you doing? Check it out on Youtube. –

There is so much to like about this movie, and, intentionally, a lot to dislike. I’ll begin with the former.

Intro To Film will teach you to analyze films under some configuration of the following lenses: Narrative Form, Mise-En-Scene, Cinematography, Editing, Sound, Performance, and Digital Effects. If you don’t know what some of these are, do yourself a favor, hit a quick Google, and open your eyes to the beauty of cinema. This film gets 10s across the board – I won’t go into each one, but I will talk about what stood out to me.

I’ll gloss over Narrative Form because, quite frankly, the film grips you in a chokehold from minute one and doesn’t let go until about the last four seconds. It’s quick and unrelenting, and sequences spill into each other beautifully without delay. It’s also not a hero’s journey, rather a balls to the wall story about a flawed, driven, and morally questionable person living in NYC. Classic Safdie brothers fashion, debatably autobiographical, and boy does it work for me.

Most importantly, I think, is Sound. This movie is a sonic masterpiece, from score and soundtrack to sound effects and audio transitions. Within the first 6 minutes of the film we get a retro soundtrack, the talking-over-each-other hustle and bustle of the New York shoe store where our protagonist works, and a very loud sex scene which culminates in a spectacular rendition of Alphaville’s ‘Forever Young,’ fittingly chorused by children as Marty’s sperm inseminate Rachel. Rachel’s egg then, through the magic of cinema, becomes a Marty Supreme branded ping-pong ball soaring through the air in slow-motion. I could practically imagine Josh and Timmy in the row behind exclaiming, “Yeah, strap in… This is the kind of movie you’re about to watch.” I was in. Talk about an inciting incident.

The peaceful and jazz-like overtures scattered throughout parts of this film completely juxtapose what’s being presented to us visually, possibly reflecting Marty’s ambition and level-headed commitment to his dream. Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine (2025), which I equally love, has a similar score; their mutual taste ticks all of my boxes and really sets their films apart from what’s traditional.

The Mise-En-Scene is impeccable, and very impressive for a 50s period piece. Safdie and his team beautifully capture the soul of that time period, from the grit and grime of sh*tty $5 apartment hotels to the refined decadence of ‘The Ritz’ in London. The Cinematography is calculated and gorgeous. It’s voyeuristic when we observe Marty as an outsider, and it’s claustrophobic when we confront him, both instances are used excellently throughout. Film stock was undoubtedly the correct choice to aid in conveying the vintage 1950s time period, and the cool color grade makes his world cold and unforgiving.

As for Performance, everyone in this film is giving it their all. Timmy, Odessa A’Zion, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Kevin O’Leary are all exceptional in their roles. O’Leary and Knicks fan Luke Manley especially stood out to me, both non-actors, the latter having appeared once on an Instagram show and was later scouted by casting director Jennifer Venditti. He’s thrust into the big leagues and delivers a performance nothing short of spectacular; what a find! Everybody is entirely believable in their roles and each individual brings a little flair that it seems only they could. Chalamet in particular does a lot of heavy lifting. He’s on screen for about 90% of the film, he’s sweating, bleeding, running, screaming, and f*cking. He’s naked, he gets spanked, he’s belittled, and defeated. One moment he has it all, then it all slips through his fingers, just to do it all over again. He truly does it all in this one to exceptional degree.

My only qualm with the entire film is the CG ping-pong ball in the table tennis sequences. I get it, it’s probably impossible to get perfect, and using a real ping-pong ball would be out of the question. It’s just something I noticed, but in no way something that detracts from any part of this film.

And now for the ‘bad’ – if you want to call it that. Without a doubt, Marty Mauser is an a**hole. He’ll stop at nothing to achieve his dream; there is no lie too large, no bridge he won’t burn, nobody he won’t sacrifice to reach the light at the end of the tunnel. This is his internal driver, his character’s key motivation, and it’s always written all over his face. Does this make his character unbearable and not someone you’d want to be around in real life – yes. Does this make the film ‘bad’? Absolutely not. If anything, it serves as the only sources of stability in the narrative. You know exactly what he wants at all times, and any ruse he cooks up is pure entertainment for us in the seats. Seeing him fall is all the sweeter, and because it’s Timmy you just can’t help but root for him. It’s fantastic.

This was a stellar film, and one that I hope becomes a modern classic. One that we look back on and remember fondly, one that we revisit often. I could speak about this film for twenty more paragraphs, but I wouldn’t want to detract from the experience of actually watching it. So please, go buy a movie ticket and watch this film.