Marty Supreme: A Final Film of 2025

In the Josh Safdie directed thriller, Marty Supreme defied my expectations of what a sports drama could be. Over the winter break, my fellow Paw Print writer Beatrice Williams and I went to see Marty Supreme in theaters. She was excited because of all the hype around the movie but I was more excited to see Tyler, the Creator’s feature film debut. I never ever could have expected the action packed, thrilling story I got as I went into the movie thinking it was just a ping-pong fictional biopic. 

Marty Supreme displays the story of a young man named Marty Mauser in the 1950s who has the ambitions to win the national ping-pong championships while struggling with lack of money and excess of love. Starring Timothée Chalamet, Odessa A’zion and Gwyneth Paltrow, this film details an insane life full of bets, broken promises and all kinds of crazy adventures and disasters. However, if you are looking for a movie about ping-pong, in the words of my fellow author, Beatrice Williams, “This movie is as much about ping-pong as Challengers is about tennis.”

Timothée Chalamet gives what I believe to be the best performance of his career so far. Although his character is quite an awful individual, his passion and dependence on being the best at what he does is absolutely epic and quite moving. Newcomer Odessa A’zion gives a stellar, emotional performance as Marty’s child’s mother and fling, Rachel. In the performance I was waiting for, I was pleasantly surprised by Tyler, the Creator’s (credited by his real name, Tyler Okonma) performance as a friend to Marty named Wally as he gave an, although short, amazingly passionate performance.

However, I have to say I was thoroughly unimpressed with Gwyneth Paltrow’s performance as Kay Stone, a rich, retired actress. I frankly found her performance flat and unexciting. In a world of new exciting and passionate actors, I think it’s time for Paltrow to follow in Kay’s footsteps, retire and move on from what used to be. 

After all of the amazing aspects of this movie, I’d like to highlight the director, Josh Safdie. While he comes from fame as one of the directing duo, the Safdie Brothers with his brother Benny, this was an impressive showing as it was his first movie without his brother in 17 years. The ambition to go out on your own in something you are passionate about and give it your all is something that is constantly felt throughout Marty Supreme. 

I never expected what came out of this movie but I was quite pleasantly surprised. I laughed, I cried, and above all, my jaw was on the floor the entire movie. I think if I could choose any movie from 2025 to keep and the rest had to go, I would have to go with Marty Supreme. I leave you with the tagline and main message of this fabulous film, “Dream Big.”