Marty Supreme review: Timothée Chalamet is racing towards his Oscar

Out of its secret screening at New York Film Festival, Josh Safdie's Marty Supreme immediately began gaining award season buzz. And why not? 

Is there an actor alive pushing harder for an Oscar than Timothée Chalamet? At 29 years old, the New York thespian has been twice nominated for Best Actor, first for the swooning queer drama Call Me By Your Name and then again for his role in the critically heralded Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown. And while campaigning for that latter performance, he collected a slew of awards and committed the arguably cringe faux pas of admitting he wanted the Oscar. How dare someone admit their ambition?!

With Marty Supreme, Chalamet tries a new tack by roughing up his pretty boy face with prosthetic pockmarks and pimples. Look to Nicole Kidman in The Hours or Brendan Fraser with The Whale or Heath Ledger with The Joker — prominent physical transformations can pay off big. They often break the spell of the godly movie star to allow an actor to play someone less glamorous, less idealized, and even downright despicable. In Marty Supreme, Chalamet's good looks would make it too easy to fall for the prattle of his eponymous anti-hero. But a fleet of blemishes and a squirmy mustache manages to transform this world-famous native New Yorker into a true New York character. And thank God. 

Long after the Oscars have been handed out and the fanfare has died down, Marty Supreme will be remembered as one of the supreme New York movies. Exploding with chaos, character, and kinetic energy, Marty Supreme is a movie about the city's scoundrels, their sins, and why we love them anyway. 

Marty Supreme is Uncut Gems' pesky sibling picture. 

After the massive success of Josh and Benny Safdie's Uncut Gems, the brothers parted ways to explore independent ventures, both of which involved sports movies. Benny teamed up with Dwayne Johnson for The Smashing Machine, an earnest but underwhelming  drama about MMA fighter Mark Kerr. Josh found inspiration in the story of table tennis champion Marty Reisman, reimagining him as a Scorsese-like punk named Marty Mauser. 

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Played by Chalamet, Marty is a legend in his own mind, guaranteed to bring the art of ping-pong to the masses. He just needs to pay his way to the championship overseas first. And he will do anything to get the scratch for that plane ticket. He'll casually — but not coolly — pull a gun on a co-worker at a claustrophobic shoe store. He'll seduce money out of the has-been movie star (Gwyneth  Paltrow) who crosses his path, or pitch his childhood friend Rachel (Odessa A'zion) into a ransom scheme involving the bellowing dog of a glowering gangster (noted NYC filmmaker Abel Ferrara). Marty's big dreams demand big risks, and he doesn't care who's taking them. 

Timothée Chalamet is f***ing spectacular in Marty Supreme. 

Far from the cool gangsters of Goodfellas or even the intimidating Travis Bickle of Taxi Driver, wiry and sharp-tongued Marty has more of an After Hours energy. He's the kind of New York eccentric who is equal parts mesmerizing and irritating, practically levitating with energy, moxie, and utter bullshit. 

It's easy to see the connective tissue between Adam Sandler's Howard Ratner and Chalamet's Marty. Both are cut from the same cloth of survival with panache and plenty of anxiety. Far from a clean-cut sportsman, Marty is perpetually ruffled, always on the run, and always running his mouth. And that means that Chalamet's performance is less a marathon and more a dance-a-thon. There's a constant demand for him to play the facade of Marty's confidence, while dripping in the creeping tension that time for becoming the world champ is running out. 

This desperation grows so intense you can practically smell the sweat collecting on that greasy little mustache. Yet, when Chalamet flashes a smile and lays into his lovers or haters with that practice patter, it's hard to resist him. If Marty were a flawless pretty boy, it'd maybe be too hard to pull off, but the masterful make-up and styling by Safdie's team rough up this world-famous Chanel brand ambassador  just right. Chalamet becomes an everyman with an outsized ego that could shade the Chrysler Building. It's an illicit thrill to watch Marty connive, insult, seduce, and steal, an all-American scoundrel at the top of his game on the table and off. Though when playing ping-pong, there's an exuberance in Chalamet that is contagious. Believe it or not, you'll get sucked into these adrenaline-fueled games of table tennis. 

Marty Supreme has a sublime ensemble cast. 

Chalamet will lead the Oscar conversation around Safdie's latest, but there's plenty of praise to go around. Safdie and co-writer Ronald Bronstein's screenplay — despite some heavy-handed sentimentality at its bookends — is ruthlessly witty and exhilaratingly racy. The score by Warp Records artist Daniel Lopatin (who also provided the sweaty soundtrack for the Safdies' nerve-wringing Good Time) is smartly anachronistic. While the movie is set in the 1950s, the score is loaded with synth and percussion that feels more attuned to '80s sports movies like Rocky or The Karate Kid. Along with adding a pulse-pounding energy to Marty Supreme, this score also suggests that its wild anti-hero is perhaps a man before his time. 

Bolstering Chalamet's bold moves are an ensemble that is sensational, breathing life into the broader world of Marty Supreme's New York. Paltrow swans about with the untouchable grace of Manhattan's posh elite. A'Zion sizzles with blue-collar sex appeal and righteous wrath. With a winsome energy, Tyler Okonma (aka Tyler, The Creator) plays the perfect foil to Marty, as a friend and fellow ping-pong player, while Géza Röhrig offers jolting calm with a sensational monologue. Abel Ferrara, whose appearance drew cheers from the NYFF audience, brings scorching menace as a local tough guy. And the list goes on with Fran Drescher, Penn Jillette, Sandra Bernhard, and Isaac Mizrahi popping up to expand the richness of Marty's realm. 

This zinging dialogue, racing score, and electric cast collide to create cinema that celebrates New York, while recognizing its warts with a bleeding grin. All of this makes Marty Supreme an unusual crowdpleaser. Full of wild humor and shocking turns, it has its audience in a chokehold of tension and surprise, rarely letting up for us to breathe. And yet, what a thrill to be breathless. 

Marty Supreme was reviewed out of the 2025 New York Film Festival. It is is now in theaters. 

UPDATE: Dec. 18, 2025, 2:18 p.m. This review was first published on Dec. 1, 2025, as part of Mashable's NYFF coverage. It has been updated for its theatrical premiere.