Review: ‘Marty Supreme’ is a movie that held my attention

I’m not a very big movie guy. I typically have to find something to do with my hands — crocheting, scrolling, picking my hangnails, peeling off a water bottle label — to distract me in order to pay attention to the plot of anything that’s longer than a TikTok video. Recently, I found myself quite intrigued by a man with a dream, an alarming amount of confidence and a box of neon orange ping pong balls.  

I watched “Marty Supreme” at a Megaplex Theatre on New Year’s Day. I committed to a feature-length film because I saw how excited my husband was — he’d been saying, “Marty Supreme, Christmas Day” to anyone he could get to listen since he saw the trailer in late October. Directed by Josh Safdie, the movie follows Marty Mauser, a fast-talking New York City hustler who wholeheartedly believes he is the greatest table tennis player in the world. Played by Timothée Chalamet, Marty is loud, delusional and deeply committed to advancing his own agenda.  

I didn’t like Marty very much, but I really wanted him to succeed. He lied, he cheated, he stole and he cajoled his way through every single one of his interactions, but somehow, I was convinced he was the greatest table tennis player in the world and that he deserved to win the championships.  

I think the tension between not liking Marty and still rooting for him is what made the rest of the film work for me. The movie never asks the audience to excuse Marty’s behavior — it just asks us to keep up with him. The film moves at his pace, which is fast, sloppy and unapologetic. Watching Marty live this way made it feel less important that everything tied up neatly because the character himself never did. 

In most of the reviews of the film I’ve read, people are criticizing what they feel are unresolved subplots. There’s the side story about Moses the dog and the man who may or may not have been a gangster, the entire saga of traffic-cone-orange limited-edition ping pong balls and the not one but two married women Marty fell into bed with — well, not always a bed because sometimes it was the back of his uncle’s shoe store. But to me, these loose ends weren’t mistakes. They were indicators of the kind of life Marty was living and the kind of man he was. These side plots feel unfinished because Marty left them that way. There’s no neat closure because he didn’t believe in it.

I think the point of the film is to lean into that chaos rather than correcting or even trying to explain it. The movie never stops to make Marty more likeable — instead, it trusts the audience to sit with discomfort, unanswered questions and a protagonist who is both magnetic and completely exhausting. “Marty Supreme” feels less like a traditional sports movie and more like being dragged along by someone who refuses to slow down, even when it would be better for everyone involved if he did. 

As someone who rarely finishes movies without fidgeting, “Marty Supreme” managed to hold my attention — not by being tidy or redeeming but by being relentless. It’s a film about obsession, momentum and the stories we tell ourselves to keep going, even when we probably shouldn’t. Really, this movie made me think: What lengths am I willing to go to accomplish the things I set out to do? For someone who went into the movie more concerned about reclining chairs and the amount of butter on my popcorn, it seems like this film did what it set out to do.