NEW YORK (OSV News) – Considered from an artistic point of view, “Marty Supreme” (A24), a loosely fact-based mix of drama and comedy, is an undeniably accomplished film. Approached from a moral standpoint, however, its narrative turns out to be both unsettling and, ultimately, unacceptable.
Timothée Chalamet is at full throttle in the role of Marty Mauser, a gifted table tennis player in 1950s New York. As viewers gradually discover, Marty is not only ambitious and driven, he’s willing to adopt virtually any means necessary to rise to the top.
Spurning his home life with his domineering mother Rebecca (Fran Drescher) and his humdrum work as a shoe salesman, Marty dreams of fame and fortune. To achieve them, he enters into an uneasy alliance with pen manufacturing mogul and potential patron Milton Rockwell (Kevin O’Leary).
In seeking Rockwell’s backing, Marty seems to have no qualms about the fact that he’s carrying on an affair with the magnate’s wife, glamorous retired actress Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow). Nor is this Marty’s only adulterous connection. He’s already impregnated his married childhood friend, Rachel Mizler (Odessa A’zion).
While angling for a rematch with Koto Endo (Koto Kawaguchi), the innovative Japanese champion who decisively defeated him in a high-profile showdown, Marty tries to keep his distance from Rachel and from the consequences of his own actions. What he can’t avoid is the predatory sadism of the now disgruntled Rockwell who humiliates Marty bizarrely but with relish.
Director and co-writer Josh Safdie’s character study — which draws on the life of ping pong champion Marty Reisman, who died in 2012, aged 82 — does see its protagonist ultimately experience something of a conversion. Personally, he steps up to face the primary responsibility he’s brought on himself while professionally his basic love for the game shines through.
Yet at least one of Marty’s breaches of the Sixth Commandment is shown as having no negative consequences. And the script, penned with Ronald Bronstein, even seeks to justify the dalliance on the excuse that the marriage he’s violating is an unhappy one. Ethically well-grounded viewers will call fault on that serve.
The film contains skewed values, multiple scenes of semi-graphic adultery, some of it romanticized, aberrant acts, rear male and partial nudity, mostly stylized violence, brief gory sights, fleeting pornographic imagery, a few uses of profanity, several milder oaths, pervasive rough and crude language and occasional crass dialogue. The OSV News classification is O – morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
Read More Movie & TV Reviews
Copyright © 2026 OSV News
