Marty Supreme (2025) Review

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

When it comes to pursuing the American dream, you’d have to assume there are dead ends before running into them so blindly.


PLOT


2025’s Marty Supreme takes place in the 1950s and follows Marty Mauser who lives in New York as a shoe salesman for his Uncle Murray (Larry Sloman). As a ping pong player training for the British Open, he’s hungry for instant success and makes a hustle by convincing his friend Dion Galanis and his businessman father Christopher (John Catsimatidis) to sell orange balls with his titular nickname. When Murray fails to pay $700 in wages he needs for his trip to London, he robs the safe before departing. There, he’s instantly disappointed with the players’ barracks that he is able to arrange staying at the Ritz Hotel where he meets actress Kat Stone who’s married to ink-pen magnate Milton Rockwell, having a secret affair with the former. Marty beats Hungarian champion Bela Kletzki (Géza Röhrig) in the semifinals, but loses the finals to Japanese player Koto Endo (Koto Kawaguchi) who uses a custom paddle. Rockwell would offer him an exhibition match in Tokyo before the World Championships, but he refuses knowing he’d have to throw the match to appease Japanese audiences. When returning to New York, Murray does charge him for theft to convince him to take care of his mother Rebecca (Fran Drescher). He of course doesn’t comply as he escapes to reconnect with his childhood friend Rachel Milzler, who’s been married to his neighbor Ira (Emory Cohen). She tells him she’s eight months pregnant because they hooked up before he went to London, but he denies that possible since he knows he can’t afford that responsibility. He then catches up with his fellow ping pong friend Wally to lay low in a run down motel. Just when he gets a letter from ITTA that he’s banned from World Championships unless reimbursing a fine of a fraudulent expense claim at Ritz, he collapses through the floor after taking a bath when he was warned by the manager not to. He lands on a mobster named Ezra Mishkin and his dog Moses, who pays him to take his pet to the veterinarian. Before he does so, Marty and Wally hustle patrons at a bowling patron. When the patrons confront them both at a gas station, their decision to escape causes the latter’s taxi to be damaged and sets the station on fire. During the commotion, Moses escapes. When Rockwell returns to NY to finance a play that’ll relaunch Kay’s career, Marty tries to share second thoughts of the exhibition but gets rebuffed by him. After having another hookup with his wife, he steals a necklace from her and tries to pawn it until discovering its costume jewelry. When he sees Rachel again, she reveals to have a black eye from Ira and he defends her by hitting him with one of his old trophies before having her stay with Dion for a while. He tries to get Moses back for a reward, but a farmer that took the dog in shoots at him. When Dion finds out he used his dad’s car and damaged it & didn’t blow up in London, he kicks him & Rachel out and discards the novelty balls. When Marty then discovers Rachel lied of the black eye, seeing the makeup come off, he abandons her which forces her to tell the truth to Ira, who then kicks her out to stay with Rebecca. The next day, Rachel tries to con Mishkin but gets abducted by him once he deduces her actions. Marty sees Kay again to return the necklace and asks for a loan to pay for a trip to Japan. After the play does she give him an anniversary necklace that can also cover the fine but when they caught having sex in Central Park, they have to bribe the police with the same necklace. Unable to get another one sooner, he apologizes to Rockwell and revives the exhibition offer on the condition of being humiliated via paddling as a result for his constant disrespect. Before leaving to Tokyo does Mishkin abduct him with Rachel demanding his dog. He takes him to the same address where he last saw Moses, but the mobster dies in a shootout with the farmer and Rachel gets wounded in the crossfire. Marty takes whatever money Mishkin had on him, realizing there was no reward money and leaves Rachel to the hospital before flying to Tokyo with Rockwell, just as she goes into premature labor. Realizing he’s too late to re-enter the tournament, he does lose the exhibition to Endo as planned. When Rockwell tends to further humiliate him by having him kiss a pig however, he demands an immediate rematch that he narrowly wins. With Rockwell also refusing to take him home, he hitches a ride with US Army Soldiers. At the hospital he sees Rachel recovering and he professes his love for her. The film ends with Marty breaking down in tears upon seeing his newborn son.


THOUGHTS


I did say the Safdie Brothers going their separate ways as filmmakers would be for the best as they had different ideas to share, but boy did I not expect a big difference in between. Benny sure gave a grounded biopic for The Smashing Machine, but Josh sure topped the exhilaration when directing this other sports drama. This is not an exact biopic per se since a lot of liberties being inspired by real life ping pong player Marty Reisman and many explored relationships in this story are non existent. That doesn’t diminish anything really because the editing by Josh and cowriter Ronald Bronstein was so ecstatic that it rivals said ecstatic atmosphere you would feel form Uncut Gems. Apart from production/costume design nailing the 50s aesthetic, the reason this movie is gonna grow to stand the test of time is because it’s this raw way of expressing there’s always a cost that comes from ambition to achieve the American dream. When you stoop low with constant manipulation and degradation, your victory will be hollow and it will the remainder of your existence to the point of needing that reality check to differ said ambition from integrity. If you don’t make the time to know the difference, then you won’t be remembered the way you want to be. The role of Marty Mauser is an instant all timer for Timothée Chalamet because this is a guy who has no boundaries in his desperate need to succeed that he’ll betray everyone who takes a liking to him and do his best to not look back. He thrives to be the best at ping pong and schemes so much because he desperately wants to stop suffering. Every setback he goes through however, he slowly realizes the world doesn’t evolve around him. I was just sure he’d be impossible to like when he chose to use Rockwell’s personal loss against him for the sake of winning an argument, which bit him bad when it was all falling apart. I’m not into public humiliation, but it’s not like he didn’t have it coming so I wasn’t even phased nor pity the situation. Every chance he had, he tried to play it both ways when it comes pleasing others and himself, but it never works out like so and he doesn’t care because he then focuses on another task betting on it to work out instead until it doesn’t. Getting into the supporting ensemble, Gwyneth Paltrow definitely stood out as Kay, portraying her as one living in the past and keeps taking a liking into Marty because his drive reminds her of what she used to have. With Kevin O’Leary, he lives up to making Rockwell that metaphorical vampire because the guy is far more contemptuous and only chose to act such due to Marty’s instigation; That mental presence he would build was arguably more of a standout compared to the physical stance Abel Ferrara had in him as Mishkin. Even though Marty never got the best opportunity due to his past mistakes, he pushed to have a chance for his talent to be seen because it was all he had left to do before letting go of the dream and whether it was worth it or not is up to him. Considering how far he took it with manipulation, it is a miracle he had any friends once the story started. I totally related to Luke Manley as Dion because his purity was so heartwarming that you can’t blame him wanting to be loyal, but seeing him throw the box out the window proved that friends have their limits too. It was even cool to see Tyler Okonma aka Tyler the Creator give a good performance as Wally because while he does express his own irritation, he does get the hustle since he already had a family to look after, making him most grounded. Last but not least, the only person that brings Marty back to the light is the one he regretted harming. Enter Odessa A’zion who holds her own portraying Rachel as one who chooses to be devious in return because that’s how love struck she is with him. It was definitely uncalled for for her to lie of going through domestic abuse, but she did it anyway because that answered she was being his mirror of willingness to fight for what she wanted. She’s so in love with Marty because he’s her tether to want more the way she is his for representing the reality he wants to leave behind. He comes around in the end not just that he lost the glory he never had, but accepted he’s not the only one fighting to be victorious. When it came to professing his love for her and being overwhelmed seeing his son, that was the true victory for him at that moment because he officially accepts responsibility for the first time in his life having true priorities. He’s free from the sorrow he put himself and others through, and now has the chance to turn that into joy & relief of something that’ll be far more exciting to go through, that is life. In conclusion, Marty Supreme will remain a fantastic film from 2025 due to giving an incredible wake up call for those who are digging too deep to be chasing old dreams, earning the Best Picture nomination in the process. If that’s the kind of film that moves you, see this now.