'Marty Supreme': Timothée Chalamet Serves Up Swagger in Josh Safdie’s 1950s Ping Pong Drama

Recently, A24 unveiled the first trailer for Marty Supreme, Josh Safdie’s gleefully stylised 1950s-set sports dramedy, with Timothée Chalamet trading brooding indie turns for a paddle and a swaggering slice of Americana.

The film is Safdie’s first solo feature in more than a decade, and his first since co-directing the frenetic diamond-dealer thriller Uncut Gems with his brother Benny in 2019. Here, he turns his lens to the little-filmed world of competitive table tennis, spinning a fictionalised account inspired by Marty Reisman — the flamboyant, sharp-tongued New Yorker who won five World Table Tennis Championships bronze medals before becoming the sport’s most recognisable showman.

Chalamet plays Marty Mauser, a prodigiously talented but underestimated player, driven as much by style as by victory. His quest for respect propels him through smoky clubs and cramped hotel rooms, into the arms of a Hollywood movie star — played by Gwyneth Paltrow — and onto the volatile circuit of mid-century sports promotion. Alongside Chalamet and Paltrow, the cast features Fran Drescher as Mauser’s acerbic mother, rapper Tyler, the Creator, magician Penn Jillette, Odessa A’zion, Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary and cult filmmaker Abel Ferrara.

Safdie co-wrote the screenplay with long-time collaborator Ronald Bronstein, keeping Reisman’s brash charisma but weaving in imagined romances, rivalries and road trips. Cinematographer Darius Khondji captures the film’s palette in golden tones, with Chalamet reportedly undertaking months of intensive ping pong training to perfect the footwork, angles and spin of a professional. “He wanted to be like a real [professional] ping pong player when he started shooting,” Khondji told reporters earlier this year.

Produced by Safdie, Bronstein, Eli Bush, Anthony Katagas, Chalamet and A24, Marty Supreme arrives in US cinemas on 25 December, eyeing both holiday audiences and awards-season attention. For Chalamet, it is another step into transformative territory, especially one that swaps the brooding romanticism of Call Me By Your Name and the confectionary charm of Wonka for the quicksilver wit and unshakable confidence of a man who made table tennis theatre.

In Safdie’s hands, ping pong has never looked this big-screen ready.