Timothée Chalamet Dazzles in Marty Supreme’s Ping Pong Frenzy
Timothée Chalamet transforms as Marty Mauser in Marty Supreme, a 1950s New York drama blending high-stakes ping pong with Safdie-style tension. Discover how Chalamet’s bold performance and inventive promotion set this film apart.
Earlier this year, Timothée Chalamet made waves at the SAG Awards by declaring he was in
“pursuit of greatness”
before a room of his peers. For some, it was a rare moment of candour—surely, most of us hope to achieve something meaningful, especially when talent is on our side. These words could just as easily have been spoken by Marty Mauser, the audacious table tennis prodigy Chalamet embodies in Marty Supreme. If you’ve spent any time on social media recently, you’ll have caught glimpses of Mauser’s swagger, thanks to Chalamet’s unconventional approach to promoting the film. Surrounded by companions sporting vivid orange spheres atop their heads and donning Mauser’s signature spectacles, Chalamet has been extolling his
“really top-of-the-line performances”
from the past several years, singling out Marty Supreme as
“top-level shit.”
The boundary between actor and character blurs intriguingly here. Like Chalamet, Mauser can justify his self-assured pronouncements. As the blazing new hope of American table tennis, Mauser unsettles the establishment by charging lavish expenses to the league, all while delivering performances that pack out venues. That is, until a defeat by a Japanese underdog wielding a novel paddle leaves him desperate for redemption in a rematch.
Beyond the Table: Gritty New York and Schemes
Despite the sporting premise, Marty Supreme is far from a straightforward sports film. Set against the backdrop of 1950s New York, the story uses table tennis as bookends, but the heart of the film is something else entirely. It channels the frenetic energy of a 1970s drama, echoing the tense, relentless style associated with the Safdie Brothers—though this time, Josh Safdie directs solo, with Benny pursuing other projects. At its core, the film follows a resourceful chancer, forced to skirt the law in a bid to reclaim what he believes is rightfully his.
One of Mauser’s more bizarre money-making ventures involves a botched attempt to blackmail a dangerous gangster—portrayed by Abel Ferrara, best known for directing Bad Lieutenant—over the return of his dog. This comes hot on the heels of a near-disastrous incident where Mauser, along with the bathtub he’s occupying, crashes through the ceiling of a dilapidated motel. From the moment he returns to the US after a humiliating world tour, performing table tennis tricks for family crowds, Mauser’s fortunes unravel in a series of calamities that push him ever further from his ambitions.
Entanglements and Unlikely Alliances
Amidst the chaos, Mauser becomes entangled with Kay Stone, a faded Hollywood icon played by Gwyneth Paltrow, who adopts a pitch-perfect British accent for the role. Trapped in a stagnant marriage to a pen magnate—portrayed with cold-blooded charm by Kevin O’Leary—Stone is drawn to Mauser’s irrepressible confidence, seeking escape from her husband’s shadow. Paltrow, largely absent from the screen since 2015’s Mortdecai, reminds audiences in just a few scenes why she was once among the most sought-after stars of the 1990s.
Equally compelling is Odessa A’zion as Rachel, Mauser’s unpredictable love interest. Rachel, yearning to break free from her loveless marriage to Ira (Emory Cohen), matches Mauser’s scheming nature and is even more determined to change her circumstances. In many respects, the film doubles as a covert love story—albeit one that opens with a microscopic shot of Mauser’s sperm racing to victory, set to the rousing strains of Tears For Fears’ ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World.’
Performance, Atmosphere, and the Safdie Touch
Chalamet trained extensively to play table tennis convincingly, and while the sport isn’t the film’s main focus, the scenes where he wields a paddle pulse with the energy of a classic underdog story. There’s a certain exhilaration to Marty Supreme. Its atmosphere and worldview feel familiar—more so than The Smashing Machine, it continues the Safdie tradition: offbeat casting, spiralling chaos, and plenty of scenes featuring sweaty hustlers embroiled in heated rows over money. Watching Chalamet command the screen is reminiscent of a young Pacino. He’s no longer chasing greatness; he’s already arrived.
Marty Supreme arrives in cinemas on 25 December. For further recommendations, explore the rest of our Big Screen Spotlight series.