Comeptitive match of table tennis pictured left to right Sahij Randhawa and Nicholas Purkis. Photographed by Timothy Purkis.

Table Tennis,1950s, New York, that’s American sports movie Marty Supreme for you. 

Marty Supreme is a Josh Safdie directed sport/drama film, starring Timothee Chalamet as Marty Mauser. He’s a hustler in the 1950s who’s aiming to become the world’s greatest table tennis player. The plot of the story focuses on his chaotic, high-stake schemes to fund a trip to London for a table tennis championship. Gwenyth Paltrow, Odessa A ‘Zion, Kevin O’Leary, Tyler Okonma aka Tyler the Creator, Abel Ferrara and Fran Drescher all appear in supporting roles. At first Marty starts off as a shoe salesman working for his uncle on the lower east side while seeking an escape through the sport of ping pong.

Will Peterson, a 19-year-old at the University of Lethbridge, working pretty much full time at Cineplex assistant manager and sports fan Was very pleased with the movie after watching it in theatres on opening weekend.

“I enjoyed Marty Supreme a lot because I didn’t know too much about it when I went into it. I thought it told a great story, There was a lot of stuff that was abrupt and crazy because Josh Safdie has done a lot of movies where he can kind of capture chaos in a sort of way. To see that again with Timothee Chalamet was cool,” said Peterson.

For Colin Spooner a former athlete who’s competed on football, basketball and hockey teams as well as being a sports fan in general. Says he really enjoyed the casting decisions made for this movie. He Especially loved with some of the former NBA players who made cameo appearances.

“Of course Timothee Chalamet puts on an incredible role as he was nominated for best actor. It was refreshing to see new faces like Kevin O’Leary, there was even some cameos of former NBA players. Like George Gervin, I’m pretty sure Tracy McGrady was one of the Harlem Globetrotters in a scene. I’m a huge Tyler the Creator fan and I thought he did an excellent job. The strongest part for me was the casting,” said Spooner. 

There wasn’t anything Peterson disliked about the movie. His girlfriend wasn’t the biggest fan of how arrogant Marty was during the film. However, it wasn’t just Peterson’s girlfriend who didn’t like how arrogant Marty was, it was also other people he heard at Cineplex talking about it. 

According to a review on Rotten Tomatoes by Tavis Johnson from Blunt Magazine “Marty Supreme Review: Timothee Chalamet Shines In An Offbeat Sports Drama on January 1, 2026. he said that “Marty Supreme is more Raging Bull than Rocky, tracing the rising and falling fortunes of a gifted but horrible human being.” 

Because while Marty is a very talented table tennis player, his arrogance and attitude led him to a lot of bad situations. Which was something that made the movie a crazy experience for viewers. 

“A lot of complaints that I’ve heard from people who have seen it, including my girlfriend, did not enjoy watching this dude being glorified and kind of in the end, winning and being not the bad guy. He’s obviously the protagonist being a jerk throughout the whole movie,” said Peterson.

For Spooner an aspect he didn’t like was that the story changed directions multiple times over the course of two hours and 29 minutes. Spooner also wished the film focused a little more on the sport of table tennis and wished the runtime was shorter.

“The story kind of felt like it was kind of all over the place for me. I came in thinking it was going to be a little bit of sports movie and it did have a lot of ping pong. There was a lot of stuff I didn’t expect to be in there. Which kind of brought it down a few scores for me. Overall, I still enjoyed my experience, but I feel like if they could have tightened the script a little better, Maybe cut out a few scenes that were too dialogue heavy. They made the movie feel like it was going on for too long,” said Spooner.

The cinematography was another aspect that Peterson really enjoyed about the movie. The films use of shot techniques was another strong point for his overall viewing experiencing.  

“I wouldn’t say exclusively, but majority were close ups and close shots. Because they want the actor to dominate the screen. They want whoever’s on the screen to be the focus and not just a wide, sweeping shot of the entire area. They’re taking control of the situation and They are in the main frame,” said Peterson. 

Spooner also agrees that the shot techniques were well done. The main thing Spooner gave credit to, was the setting the movie took place in which was 1950s New York. He did mention that the intro scene does a great job at setting the tone, that this movie won’t be unlike anything you’ve seen before.

Chalamet’s performance in the leading role received very high praise from Spooner, who called his performance the highlight of the movie.

“He just brought like a special arrogance that he really played well, he thought the world revolved around him. It was very narcissistic that the only thing he needs is for him to achieve better and he will do whatever he can to try to get to that moment,” said Spooner.

Peterson agrees that Chalamet put on amazing performance through the whole movie. Something he noticed was that a lot of people didn’t connect with his Jewish American accent, which he thought was unique that Chalamet took the time to master that. 

Peterson also believes the movie did a great job at showing an accurate representation of the sport of table tennis. However, the actual ball that was shown during a lot of the scenes was not real and was edited during post-production. 

“It was filmed when they’re doing the actual ping pong. The ball is VFX it’s fake, they can focus on the timing and the movement of themselves without hitting the ball properly. So, in a way, I’m sure that they did hit ping pong balls during the movie, but sometimes it was fake,” said Peterson.

Spooner thought that a lot of the scenes were accurate to the sport. The scenes of Marty training in the basement against other real ping pong players. The action scenes as well of Marty competing competitively were another thing that Spooner really enjoyed and believes it helped the film present an accurate representation of the sport of table tennis.

Marty Supreme finished with very high ratings. According to Rotten Tomatoes the film scored a 93 percent with an audience score of 82 percent. According to IMDB the movie scored a 7.7/10 rating. The film is now available on streaming to buy or rent on Amazon Prime. Marty Supreme was produced by A24 which is a prominent American independent entertainment company. It’s a studio that has been taking over Hollywood over the last few years and the film has an age rating of R.