By Iain McLean

Timothee Chalamet at the New York Marty Supreme premiere.

A24 released its latest film, Marty Supreme, over the Christmas break and the mantra of “A24 never misses” is still very much alive.

The film has already achieved the gold as Timothée Chalamet went home with the ‘Best Actor (Musical or Comedy)’ award at the Golden Globes and is sure to gather more awards as the gold season rolls on.

The movie is a biopic, loosely based on Marty Reisman, a Champion Table Tennis player from the 1940’s-1950’s. He is often described as a “charismatic and charming” personality and for his “hustling”. These are translated over into the film and remain faithful.

‘Marty Supreme’ proves once again that Chalamet is a future Hollywood great. We’ve already seen him shine in roles like Paul Atreides in Denis Villeneuve’s wildly successful ‘Dune’ series and more recently, his performance as Bob Dylan in 2024’s ‘A Complete Unknown’.

This film is where Chalamet truly shines, however. The balanced mix of drama and humour that still retain the heart of the story is something the actor doesn’t fail at delivering the entire movie.

He is joined by co-star Odessa A’zion, who plays Rachel, Marty’s love interest. Odessa, while still a minor name in the film industry has been gaining steam the past few years with roles in “Until Dawn” and “I love LA”. Despite this however, she is a perfect opposite to Timothée’s Marty Mauser.

The story revolves around Marty chasing his dreams, even if that means alienating those around him. His family, his friends and even Rachel, for months, sometimes years at a time. This is perfectly portrayed when Marty re-appears back in New York and walks into Rachel’s workplace. The chemistry between Odessa and Chalamet never falters, no matter how toxic their relationship may be, they still choose each other to a fault.

Timothee Chalamet on the set of Marty Supreme.

The film does have its humour, which always lands and never falls flat, a standout being a very awkward restaurant dinner table discussion about Marty’s talents which then leads to a joke about Auschwitz.

This is also something the film never shies away from, the time in which it’s set. World War 2 has only just ended, tensions are still high with certain Countries, which is

directly tied into Marty’s end goal: An American defeating a Japanese player in Tokyo, their home soil.

This goal comes from a rivalry set up early in the film and drives Marty’s decision making. No matter the dangers that may come from it.

Three other key actors who should get their flowers are Gwyneth Paltrow, who plays Kay Stone, an actress coming to the end of her career that Marty sees an opportunity in through her husband, Milton Rockwell.

This was the most perplexing casting choice as I didn’t even recognise it was this person until the credits rolled. The actor is none other than Kevin O’Leary, himself. Yes, the businessman best known for the series ‘Shark Tank’ and ‘Dragon’s Den’. It wasn’t perplexing for being out of place or that he couldn’t act, it was that he could. He was lost completely in the role of Rockwell.

The third actor is Tyler Okonma AKA Tyler the Creator. Okonma plays Wally, Marty’s best friend who joins Marty during one of his schemes to gather funds to get to Tokyo. These are solid stand out scenes with incredible chemistry, not just between the characters but the actors themselves. The main mission is to hustle as many people as they can before they’re noticed, which leads to a fiery conclusion.

The most important thing about the film, however, is the soul that it has, even though this film follows Marty and his schemes and scams that put his loved ones repeatedly in danger, it never lets the audience forget what is most important and that is family and loved ones around you.

The film both opens and closes with family. In the beginning Marty doesn’t much care for his family, not falling for his mothers attempts to see him more often or trying not to show much invested emotion in Rachel.

By the end of the film this is completely flipped and it’s an entirely new Marty which is highlighted by its incredibly moving final scenes.

My screening was sold-out at my local Odeon, something I would usually take issue with or be hyper-aware of, but that all fell away as the film went on. It drew me and those around me to the point there wasn’t needless conversation or muffled videos being played on phones. Everyone was immediately invested in these characters and where the story was going.

This is a massive achievement for its Director, Josh Safdie and his co-writer, Ronald Bronstein as Cinema’s are fighting for their survival against streaming giants like Netflix and Paramount+ and a release this good that gets people in the door helps in that fight.

They made film gold and were duly rewarded for it at the Golden Globes.

There is one last thing that needs to be highlighted and given its dues for keeping the audience’s attention: The score and soundtrack.

The composer is Daniel Lopatin, who previously done scores for ‘Uncut Gems’, ‘The Bling Ring’ and ‘Good Time’.

Lopatin makes the bold choice of going for synth-based soundtrack and including 80’s hits, rather than sticking to just the time periods style. Which was a surprising but well thought out decision.

There’s going to be two songs stuck in your head when you leave the cinema and it’s Alphaville’s, ‘Forever Young’ and Tears for Fears’ ‘Everybody wants to the rule the world’.

The former being included in one of the most... unique(?) title cards I’ve ever seen and the latter being the finale and credits song.

This is another notch in A24’s ‘crown jewel’ of films, joining other A24 knockouts like 2024’s ‘Civil War’, 2022’s ‘Everything, Everywhere All at Once’ and ‘The Whale’, which also released in 2022.

It must also be experienced in a full Cinema setting to best appreciate what they’ve created here. Don’t wait for it to come out in streaming platforms in 3 months’ time, there’s never been a bigger reason to go to your cinema while it’s out, except of course the first ever trilogy to reach a billion dollars directed by one James Cameron.

So, what are you waiting for? Get your friends or family together and get ready to experience one of those life perspective altering films and be amazed at the drama, comedy and the heart all wrapped up in a Table Tennis shaped bat.

Golden Globe winning ‘Marty Supreme’ is screening now at your local Cinema.

5/5 stars

Marty Supreme gives A24 another ‘game winning point’