Marty Supreme (2025)

User Review

• 

  Barneyonmovies

  8 / 10

  WHAT I LIKED: Josh Safdie's 'Marty Supreme,' is basically 'Catch Me If You Can,' if it were made by Martin Scorsese.
  
  Just like Frank Abagnale, our titular character (Timothee Chalamet) is a great American dreamer who wills his fame and success into existence from nothing, but he does so by swindling the world into sponsoring his career as a table tennis star. That's captivating not least because Chalamet sells the determination so well, but also because Safdie writes and directs with so much wit and pace.
  
  But the film also engages on a more human level too, as the script does a lot to examine both the cost and the ultimate hollowness of the American Dream just as much as it dazzles us with it. Before long, Marty ends up leading those closest to him - including childhood sweetheart Rachel (Odessa A'zion) and friend Dion (Luke Manley) - into dangerous situations to make money. He even severs his relationship with his parents and willingly places himself as a pawn in the hand of a rich man (Kevin O'Learly), but then when he finally achieves his dream, he comes to the crushing realisation that it's not really worth it.
  
  The final frames see him overcome with emotion and clarity as returning to Rachel and meeting his new baby remind him of the real point to life. That's a pretty moving arc to go on with a character like this, and frankly it's a relief that the film goes in that direction rather than glorifying Marty's original ideas of success and ambition.
  
  WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: Like many Scorsese movies, it does often ask us to admire the toxic bravado of its star a little too much.
  
  VERDICT: 'Marty Supreme,' is a gripping tale about willing success into existence, then finding out it's not what you thought.

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