Marty Supreme
Marty Supreme is a 2025 American sports comedy-drama film directed by Josh Safdie who co-wrote with Ronald Bronstein. Set in the 1950s, it follows fictional American table tennis player Marty Mauser in his quest to become world champion. Timothée Chalamet stars in the title role; with Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A'zion, Kevin O'Leary, Tyler Okonma, Abel Ferrara, and Fran Drescher appearing in supporting roles.
Safdie and co-writer Bronstein began developing the film in 2018 after Safdie was gifted a copy of Marty Reisman's 1974 memoir, The Money Player: The Confessions of America's Greatest Table Tennis Champion and Hustler. Safdie met with Chalamet in 2018 and offered him the lead role. Following a multi-year development period, the project was officially announced in July 2024; it marks Safdie's first solo directorial effort since The Pleasure of Being Robbed. Cinematographer Darius Khondji shot the film on 35 mm film stock, and Safdie's regular collaborator Daniel Lopatin composed its score. Production design was led by Jack Fisk.
Marty Supreme premiered as a "secret screening" at the 2025 New York Film Festival on October 6, 2025, followed by a U.S. theatrical release by A24 on December 25, where it received widespread acclaim. The National Board of Review and the American Film Institute named it one of the top ten films of the year. The film has grossed $119 million worldwide, becoming A24's third-highest-grossing film. It received nine nominations at the 98th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor and eleven at the 79th British Academy Film Awards, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress. It also earned three nominations at the 83rd Golden Globe Awards and 32nd Actor Awards. Chalamet won a Golden Globe Award and Critics' Choice Award for his performance.
Plot
In 1952 New York City, Marty Mauser works as a shoe salesman at his uncle Murray's shop while also competing professionally as a table tennis player. Marty dreams of winning the British Open and defeating defending champion Béla Kletzki to bring American attention to the sport. He also pitches selling orange novelty table tennis balls bearing his name to his friend Dion and Dion's businessman father, and is having an affair with his married childhood friend Rachel Mizler. Marty demands $700 for his London trip, but Murray refuses, citing concern for Marty's mother and wanting him to keep his job. After hours, Marty robs the shop's vault by threatening his coworker Lloyd at gunpoint.In London, Marty, unhappy with the players' barracks, instead stays at the Ritz Hotel, where he seduces former actress Kay Stone and meets her wealthy husband, pen magnate Milton Rockwell. Marty defeats Kletzki in the semi-finals but loses the final to Koto Endo, a deaf Japanese player using a sponge racket. Rockwell offers Marty an exhibition match against Endo in Tokyo before the World Championships, but Marty declines upon learning he would be expected to throw the match to appease Japanese audiences. Rockwell tells Marty that he is already a vaudeville performer, since he is touring internationally with Kletzki as a novelty act for the Harlem Globetrotters.
Back in New York, Marty is arrested for stealing from Murray but escapes. He reconnects with Rachel, who is pregnant and who claims the baby is his. While staying in a run-down hotel with his friend Wally, a taxi driver, Marty discovers he has been banned from the World Championship unless he pays a $1,500 fine to the International Table Tennis Association for fraudulently expensing his Ritz stay. Marty's bathtub collapses through the floor, injuring mobster Ezra Mishkin, who pays Marty to take his dog Moses to a veterinarian. Marty instead hustles patrons at a New Jersey bowling alley with Wally to raise the money. The bowlers later attack them at a gas station but Marty and Wally escape, damaging the taxi and setting the station on fire. Moses runs away during the scuffle.
Rockwell returns to New York, having financed a play to relaunch Kay's career. After having sex with Kay, Marty attempts to pawn her necklace, but learns it is costume jewelry. Rachel comes to Marty with a black eye claiming her husband Ira has beaten her, prompting Marty to assault him. Marty and Rachel stay with Dion, who reveals he had produced the novelty balls but Marty failed to follow up. Marty and Rachel steal Dion's car and attempt to find Moses to extort money from Mishkin, but flee after being shot at by a farmer who has taken Moses in. Dion throws them out for stealing and damaging his car and discards the novelty balls. Marty learns Rachel faked her injury to manipulate him and abandons her. Rachel tells Ira the baby is not his, and he throws her out.
At the opening of Kay's play, Marty apologizes for stealing her jewelry. Though she sees through him, Kay tells Marty to meet her that night in Central Park, where she gives him a valuable necklace to pay his fine and travel. Marty and Kay begin having sex in the park but are soon caught by police, and use the necklace to bribe the officers into releasing them. Kay offers him another necklace, but receives a poor review during the afterparty for the play and breaks down, leaving her indisposed. Marty then begs Rockwell to revive the Tokyo exhibition offer, and Rockwell agrees on the condition that Marty submit to a humiliating public spanking.
Before Marty leaves, he and Rachel are kidnapped by Mishkin after Rachel attempts to con him with another dog. Mishkin forces them to take him to the farmhouse where Moses was found. A shootout leaves the farmer, Mishkin, and his men dead, and Rachel wounded. Marty discovers the money is mostly worthless clippings. He takes Rachel to the hospital as she goes into premature labor, and then leaves for Tokyo.
In Japan, Marty is told he is too late to enter the World Championship even if he pays his fine. He loses the exhibition match as planned, but when Rockwell plans to further humiliate him by making him kiss a pig onstage, Marty announces that the match was a sham and demands a real rematch, to which Endo agrees; Marty narrowly wins. Refused passage home by Rockwell, Marty flies back with U.S. Army soldiers, reunites with his mother at the hospital, confesses his love to a recovering Rachel, and breaks down in tears upon meeting his newborn son.
Cast
Production
Background and development
's interest in table tennis began in his youth, as his grandparents often had "eccentric Jewish immigrant Lower East Side characters" playing the sport at their house. In 2018, Safdie's wife and executive producer on the film, Sara Rossein, bought a copy of table tennis player Marty Reisman's 1974 autobiography The Money Player, thinking Safdie would enjoy it. Safdie was in conversations with Timothée Chalamet at the time, as they had recently become friends, and presented him the project by focusing on Reisman's physical similarities to the actor. Chalamet accepted the role and began taking table tennis lessons that same year. Chalamet named Robert Rossen's The Hustler and Martin Scorsese's The Color of Money as references for the film.In December 2023 Chalamet said his next film would involve table tennis. By July 2024, the project was confirmed as Marty Supreme, to be directed by Safdie, his first solo project without his brother Benny since The Pleasure of Being Robbed in 2008. Safdie and Ronald Bronstein wrote the script based on Reisman's life, though "sources close to the production" called the story "a fictionalized original, rather than a biopic". They wrote backstories for every person that appeared on the film. The film was produced by Central Pictures and IPR.VC in addition to A24.
Casting
Safdie wrote the roles played by Chalamet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Tyler Okonma, and Abel Ferrara with them in mind. However, it was speculated that Julia Roberts had been offered Paltrow's part first, but turned it down. After failing to find a suitable actor for the role of Milton Rockwell, Kevin O'Leary was pursued by Safdie and Bronstein due to his persona in the reality television series Shark Tank; they flew out to O'Leary's home to watch him read for the role. Khondji said the film featured around 140 non-actors, including French highwire artist Philippe Petit. Casting director Jennifer Venditti had previously scouted Isaac Simon and Odessa A'zion; Luke Manley was discovered by the team on social media; Isaac Mizrahi was suggested by Safdie, who knew him. Venditti scouted Ralph Colucci at a horse track, as indicated by the backstory Safdie had written for his character. Yale professor Paul Grimstad appeared at the behest of Bronstein, as they were roommates in the late 1990s; Grimstad had previously appeared in Bronstein's film Frownland. Mitchell Wenig was cast as a henchman; he is a friend of Safdie's who previously appeared in Safdie's Uncut Gems and Adam Sandler: Love You.The former basketball player Joe Johnson was flown to New York to appear in the film, but did not arrive on set. Professional ping-pong player Wally Green was cast in a small speaking role, but his scene was cut. Venditti set up a ping-pong table to use during improvisational setups as part of the casting process. During post-production, Safdie got Robert Pattinson to cameo as the voice of an off-screen British Open umpire. Mordechai Rubinstein, a New York City fashion blogger, and friend of Safdie, appears uncredited as a shoe store salesman. Kim Hastreiter, co-founder of Paper, a New York City magazine, was cast by Vendetti and appears uncredited as a shoe store customer.