Marty Supreme (2025) – Review and Summary – Timothée Chalamet Tries His Hand At Being A Anti-Hero

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“Marty Supreme” Film Details

• Director(s): Josh Safdie
• Writer(s): Josh Safdie, Ronald Bronstein
• Distributor: A24
• Runtime: 2 Hour(s) and 30 Minutes
• Public Release Date (In Theaters): December 25, 2025
• Genre(s): Comedy, Drama, Young Adult, Historical (1950s)
• Content Rating: Rated R
• Primary Language: English
• More Information (External Link)

Movie Summary

It’s 1952 in New York City, and Marty works at his uncle’s shoe shop as a masterful salesman, but what he really wants is to be big in table tennis. He has the British Open coming up, then a world championship after, but Marty wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth. His uncle takes care of him and his mom and expects him to set aside his tabletop dreams and take over the family shoe business.

Marty is not about that life, and, in fact, he shows himself able and willing to lie, cheat, steal, con, whatever it takes to compete and prove that he isn’t just a showman in terms of knowing how to rile up a crowd, but he actually has the skills to back up how boisterous he gets.

Cast and Characters

Marty (Timothée Chalamet)

• Check out other productions we’ve covered starring this actor: [Link to Actor’s Tag]

• Character Summary: Marty is 23, obsessed with table tennis, was raised in a single-parent home, and is a charmer. Unfortunately, though, rather than mainly using his charm to be a good shoe salesman at his uncle’s shop, he often uses it to hustle to get money or get women out of their drawers.

Rachel (Odessa A’zion)

• Check out other productions we’ve covered starring this actor: [Link to Actor’s Tag]
• Character Summary: Rachel is Marty’s childhood friend, going back to when they were 8, and Marty is under the impression that she has loved him since then. He probably isn’t wrong, and them having sex definitely lends that some credence. However, multiple factors complicate their relationship, like Rachel being married to someone else.

Wally (Tyler Okonma)

• Check out other productions we’ve covered starring this actor: [Link to Actor’s Tag]
• Character Summary: Wally is Marty’s table tennis buddy, with whom he has competed and hustled with. But Wally has also been screwed over a handful of times by Marty, and might be the only one, besides Rachel, who unexplainably stays in Marty’s rotation.

What To Expect In “Marty Supreme” (Rated R) – Content Overview

• Dialog:
  • Cursing: Occasional
  • Discriminatory Language: Yes
• Graphic Imagery or Violence:
  • Gun Violence: Occasional
  • Gore/ Blood/ Body Horror: Mild (Context: Bleeding, Depiction of Open Wounds)
• Sexual Content:
  • Nudity: Non-Sexual/ Sexual (Context: Backside/Chest)
  • Sexual Situations: Implied
• Miscellaneous:
  • Drinking: Yes
  • Smoking: Yes
  • Gross/ Disturbing Imagery: Vomit

Review and Commentary

Highlight(s)

The Build Up To The Final Table Tennis Match [82/100]

For most of the matches we see Marty play, it isn’t like when you watch a good boxing movie, or like the later matches in Challengers, where you find yourself bobbing and moving like you’re in the scene. The majority of Marty’s battles feel like the calm between his last and next hustle. That is, until his final match.

With that match, it isn’t about making money; it is about Marty proving himself, and after the journey you went on with him, for better or worse, you are on his side. Yes, he may have been a bastard to probably anyone he had a conversation with, but in that moment, you are a Marty fan, you want this Jewish boy from New York, with barely two nickels to rub together to win.

For while, he may have made some crude jokes, screwed over friends, mentors, even women who would do anything for him, Chalamet ups that charm towards the end, helping you understand how Marty was able to get back into people’s good graces throughout Marty Supreme.

Rachel’s Relationship With Marty [84/100]

Rachel is one of Marty’s notable allies, alongside his best friend, Wally. But Rachel holds a special place for as much as Wally is down to con some White boys from Jersey, Rachel has been down for Marty since they were 8. Mind you, he probably does her dirty more than anyone else, I’m talking multiple times putting her in situations she could have been killed, but the way Odessa A’zion plays her helps you understand why A24 is putting her on a real press circuit. I’m talking daytime talk shows.

For as much as the attention will mostly go to Chalamet, as someone who has been watching A’zion’s performances for a bit now, you have to recognize there is something special here. For one, she is playing against her usual type. Yes, she may get loud, be rebellious in certain moments, and does convey this special type of vulnerability that made us a fan, but she also is playing someone in love.

Mind you, not lustfully in love, but that ride or die, I want to marry you, have kids with you, spend my last breath saying “I Love You” type of love. Which, with Marty so focused on his career, is often heartbreaking. Yet, because they’ve known each other since they were 8, then comes moments when you see her try to show Marty she can be suave, pull one over on people, perhaps show she is worthy to be his partner.

It all makes it so, as Marty goes back and forth between honoring her and leaving her in the dust, if you are in a vulnerable place, you may cry over Rachel’s plight with Marty.

Sometimes Loving To Hate Marty [87/100]

But honestly, the best thing about Marty Supreme is that Chalamet is playing someone you could so easily hate. Yes, he is a hustler and in some ways you got to respect what he is willing to do to make his dreams into reality. However, more often than not, we see him screw over good people, those who probably don’t have much more than him, than people well off.

It leads to this back and forth between you wanting to see Marty get punched, embarrassed, have his dreams crushed because someone breaks his wrist or hand, and then Chalamet brings you right back into the fold. He has you thrilled by what Marty pulls off to get to where he wants to go. And let me tell you, there are moments when Marty Supreme damn near feels like a thriller as guns go off, people get stabbed, and Marty is being chased, sometimes by cops.

On The Fence

I Don’t Think This Needed To Be Two and a Half Hours [74/100]

One of the major, if not sole, issues with Marty Supreme is that it is a two-and-a-half-hour movie, where sometimes it can feel like things are repeating themselves, with characters sometimes being rearranged for Marty’s latest scheme. By the middle of the movie, you see a pattern of Marty nearly reaching a goal, then something happens, and in his desperation, he goes back to someone he screwed over earlier in the movie.

At first, it is comical, as you see Marty beg, plead, and even take a bare behind spanking. But after a while, it gets old. So as much as you love the highs and seeing Marty get humbled, at a certain point, it can feel like they added a notable amount of filler.

Which, yes, as mentioned in the last topic, the filler isn’t necessarily boring. Marty ends up involved with someone in the mob, a former movie star, whom Marty seduces, and there are countless other shenanigans. But there comes a point where it can feel Marty Supreme sucks Chalamet’s star power damn near dry and leaves him just enough to win you over in the end, as Marty breaks out in tears.

Overall

Our Rating (81/100): Positive (Worth Seeing)

By no means is Marty Supreme the best movie of the year, but it is undoubtedly one of the best Timothée Chalamet movies, and certainly raises Odessa A’zion as an actress. Chalamet challenges his ability to be likable in ways that may just win him an Oscar, and while I’m not hearing much about A’zion joining him as a major accolade nominee, I’d submit it is Rachel’s love for Marty which allows Marty to more so be an anti-hero than someone you just want to see lose, be broken, and end up begging for scraps on the street.

A just dessert.

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