MARTY SUPREME
(director/writer: Josh Safdie; screenwriter: Ronald Brownstein; cinematographer: Darius Khondji; editor: Josh Safdie, Ronald Brownstein; music: Daniel Lopatin; cast: Timothée Chalamet (Marty Mauser), Odessa A’zion (Rachel Mizler), Sandra Bernhard (Judy), Emory Cohen (Ira Mizler), Ralph Colucci (Lloyd), Fran Drescher (Rebecca Mauser), Abel Ferrara (Ezra Mishkin), Pico Iyer (Ram Sethi), Koto Kawaguchi (Koto Endo), Luke Manley (Dion Galanis), Kevin O’Leary (Milton Rockwel), Tyler Okonma (Wally), Gwyneth Paltrow (Kay Stone), Larry Ratso Sloman (Murray Norkin), Penn Jillette (Hoff), Geza Rohri (Bela), George Gerwin (Lawrence); Runtime: 150; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Eli Bush, Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie, Anthony Katagas, Timothée Chalamet; A24; 2025)
“Lots of laughs.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
The latest rollicking screwball comedy by Josh Safdie (“Adam Sandler: Love You “/”Uncut Gems”) is set in NYC during the 1950s. Safdie co-writes it with Ronald Brownstein, providing a first-class script, that has lots of laughs and energy.
The young Jewish hustler Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet) is a ping pong champ with big plans who struggles financially while working in a shoe store. He has an on-going affair with his neighbor Rachel (Odessa A’zion), who’s married to the brute Ira (Emory Cohen).
While at a ping pong tournament in London, Marty picks up the former movie star Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow) in a hotel lobby at the event, who is making a comeback and boffs her while trying to cook up a business deal with her bigoted husband Milton (Kevin O’Leary) that goes nowhere. After losing the event to a Japanese superstar (Koto Kawaguchi, a real-life deaf table tennis master) and not making a deal, Marty returns to the city in debt and learns Rachel’s pregnant with his baby.
The reprehensible and needy but still likeable Marty is a low-life character filled with twitches, a giant ego and no sense of shame, who thinks winning is everything. He bounces around the city like a ping pong ball coming across odd characters and shocking situations.
There are endearing cameos from cult film director Abel Ferrara and movie stars Sandra Bernhard and Fran Drescher, and many others including the former basketball star George Gerwin and the author Pico Iyer.
This is the funniest film I’ve seen since “Uncut Gems.” The performance by Chalamet is his best one yet. The zany story is based on the table tennis legend Marty Reisman, the New Yorker who won the 1958 and 1960 U.S. Men’s singles championship.
REVIEWED ON 12/3/2025 GRADE: A
dennisschwartzreviews.com