Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet), a hustler in 1950s New York City, cheats his way to his goal of being the best table tennis player in the world. Along the way he comes across many obstacles that lead to questionable decisions.
Spoilers ahead.
Overall, we thought that Marty Supreme had a good plot that stayed strong throughout the film.
It consisted of many subplots that all added up into one, and we thought that was very interesting and entertaining. The amount of side quests really emphasized Marty’s hustler life.
With all of these subplots, the movie barely had any ping pong scenes except for the major ones in the beginning and end. Even with just two big scenes, ping pong was still the overarching focus because it was his motivation for almost everything.
The side plot of saving the dog, Moses, was interesting at first, but once it reached the third act and Marty and Rachel went back to the farm house, it got boring. Yes, the shootout was interesting and led to Rachel giving birth, but then they went back to the house, knowing it was dangerous, and we felt like they could’ve done it differently.
We also felt bad for the dog: it got smashed by the bathtub, Marty refused to take it to the vet, it almost got burnt to death by the fire, it was held at ransom, was involved in the shootout, and then not having a satisfactory ending for it was just so sad. We understand that the dog was kind of a metaphor for Marty’s greed but we don’t stand for animal abuse (no real dogs were harmed in the making of this movie).
Rachel’s fake black eye was predictable to anyone who has seen Victorious, specifically the episode “Stage Fighting,” when Jade fakes a black eye with makeup. (Cassidy did hear gasps in the theater when it happened, so maybe other people had different opinions on this.)
We aren’t going to mention all the side plots, but Nola’s favorite is Marty’s adventures with Wally, and Cassidy’s is Marty’s relationship with Mr. Rockwell.
Contrary to the majority of opinions, we enjoyed the ending and thought it made a lot of sense. The ending symbolizing his hustler life has to come to an end with his baby was impactful. Timothée Chalamet crying is always a good way to end a movie.
The performances in the movie were good – some not so much as others – but that’s what you can expect when you cast big stars.
Gwyneth Paltrow’s return to acting was good, nothing out of the ordinary. We think it was a good and fun role for her anticipated return. She worked well with Kevin O’Leary, they both played a believable couple that hates each other. His performance was impressive, he seemed like he was playing himself and we were fine with that.
Timothée Chalamet was perfect for this role, annoying but still charming in some kind of way. We expected him to be good based on the great movie reviews so it wasn’t that shocking to us. The makeup done on him was really good and made his skin believably bad.
Tyler Okonma (AKA Tyler, The Creator) was surprisingly good and played his role well. At first, it was like “oh my god it’s Tyler, The Creator”, but then it became less jarring and he blended in with everyone else.
Normally, when well-known celebrities that don’t act professionally are cast in a big movie, it’s hard to watch the film and understand the character because it’s just so distracting. An example of this is Harry Styles in Don’t Worry Darling, like, that’s not Jack Chambers, that’s Harry Styles.
Odessa A’zion was questionable, not horrible but not as good as the other performance. She stuck out because she was noticeably worse than the others. She just looks like she’d live in 2026, like she’d own an iPhone. Nola believes she should stick to I Love LA, no more serious films, and is sad that she is ending her career before it can really take off.
Recently, we feel like there has been a rise of insufferable characters in movies. We believe Marty is one of the better ones. Underneath all of the bad things he did, he had good intentions. For example, all he was trying to do was make sure Rachel was safe and had a good place to stay.
Some of his actions were justified, maybe around 40%. Some of his hustling, how he reacted to the fake black eye, taking his share of the money from the safe, and how he handled Rachel was all justified. Not taking the dog to the vet, though, that was not justified at all.
Marty’s determination was admirable: he had one big goal and all he wanted was to achieve it. He worked hard and never stopped.
The two main songs of the film were “Forever Young” by Alphaville, played during the opening credits, and “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears, played as he looks at the baby and the ending credits. We feel like both of the songs fit well and are purposely a little ironic. We had no problem with the songs being from the 80s and the film being set in the 50s because the film didn’t stress about it being the 50s, it could’ve been the 60s or 70s and it still would be the same.
Our favorite song was “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” because we felt like it was a strong song to end the film with. Marty wanted to rule the world, he wanted to be the best table tennis player in the world.
Our overall rating was a 4.75/ 5 stars. We definitely recommend seeing this, it was a big movie for 2025. Even though we had our complaints, it was still enjoyable and entertaining.
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Featured photo by A24.
