Timothée Chalamet has been involved in a number of award-worthy projects over the past couple of years, including last year’s A Complete Unknown and Dune: Part Two. He’s not slowing down, either, with Marty Supreme hitting the 2025 movie calendar this month and already generating Oscar buzz for its lead actor. Critics have seen the upcoming A24 film, and they’re definitely fanning those flames.
Marty Supreme stars Timothée Chalamet as table tennis player Marty Mauser in a sports dramedy from Josh Safdie that’s loosely based on real-life champion Marty Reisman. Gwyneth Paltrow is returning to the big screen for the first time since Avengers: Endgame, and for a sports movie about ping pong, the trailer looks pretty intense. It seems like David Ehrlich of IndieWire would cosign this sentiment, as he calls Chalamet’s performance “legendary” in an “agonizing” epic about the true cost of greatness. He gives it an A, writing:
David Rooney of THR describes what Timothée Chalamet does in Marty Supreme as “Duracell Bunny physicality” and says the movie as a whole “is a wonder.” It strikes the critic as funny that this is Josh Safdie’s first feature since 2008 without his brother Benny, because, as Rooney puts it:
Michael Calabro of IGN rates it an “Amazing” 9 out of 10, saying that Marty Supreme is equal parts fun and stressful. The film combines Josh Safdie’s chaotic directing style with Timothée Chalamet’s charisma to make a movie that is, “without a doubt, one of the year’s best films.” Calabro continues:
Pete Hammond of Deadline praises all of the efforts behind the scenes of Marty Supreme, including production design, the period costuming and the musical score in creating what is so much more than a sports biopic. Of course, he also lauds the lead actor, comparing his talents to Adam Sandler’s in Uncut Gems. Hammond writes:
Time Magazine’s Stephanie Zacharek seems to be the rare outlier, as the critic pushes back against the notion that audiences are supposed to relish Marty’s passion despite how many people he has to steamroll to get to greatness. Such an idea can be fun, but this movie is as “hollow as a ping pong ball,” Zacharek says, all the way up to the main character’s unrealistic redemption. The critic says: