Marty Supreme ( Blu ray review )

No matter what you are doing at this very moment, grab yoursself a cup of fresh brewed coffe, or a fresh cup of tea and let us go back to the year of 2019. That´s not that long ago right? Very true, but there is a very good reason to why this year is very important, especially in the subject known as movies. This was the year when director´s  Josh Safdie and Benny Safdie brought us one of the best films of that year, that was actually released on the streaming service Netflix. If you don´t know what film i am talking about, i can tell you that it is the powerful Netflix drama known as Uncut Gems. Now, if you have read my reviews over the years you may have seen i have been critical to some Adam Sandler films, for a very good reason. Some of his streaming comedies on Netflix have been pretty terrible, except that i enjoyed his 2024 space drama Netflix film Spaceman. But it´s still nowhere near as good as Uncut Gems is, the best film Adam Sandler have ever done in my opinion. Uncut Gems tell the story of Howard Ratner ( played by Adam Sandler ), a Jewish-American jeweler and gambling addict who must retrieve an expensive 2008 NBA Championship ring he purchased, in order to pay off his debt. Uncut Gems is a perfect example of how dangerous it is being a gambling addict, or addicted to making money in general where you don´t have any limits. Howard Ratner may be a character in a script, but there are so many people out there struggling with gambling addiction as this character does. Adam Sandler is absolutely brilliant in the lead role and the film looks so gorgeous. This is my personal favourite streaming film on Netflix so far and i have probablu watched it 10 times since it came out. There is actually a really good 4KUltraHD release of Uncut Gems from the distrubution company Criterion Collection. One of the director´s of Uncut Gems, the man known as Josh Safdie, released his own film Marty Supreme last year with critical praise and being nominated at the 83rd Golden Globe Awards and the 98th Acadamey Awards. I was supposed to see this film in cinema late last year, but somewhere a long the way those plans were changed. So, to prepare for this review of Marty Supreme i decided to get a physical blu ray copy from the UK ( since this film is not coming out on physical media until June 9th here in Sweden ). Being such a critically acclaimed film worldwide, is Marty Supreme as good as many films critics have been saying or is this just a waste of your precious time?

In New York City in 1952, Marty Mauser ( Timothée Chalamet ) works as a shoe salesman in his uncle Murray Norkin´s ( Larry "Ratso" Sloman ) shop while also competing profesionally as a table tennis player. Marty dreams of winning the British Open to bring American attention to the sport. He also pitches selling orange "Marty Supreme" novelty table tennis ballsto his friend Dion Galanis ( Luke Manley ) and his father. But the journey to reach his goal to have a successfull career within table tennis comes with many challenges, queston is if Marty is prepared to sacrifice everything to reach to the top?

I know that last year there were many film critics calling this film as ome of the best of the year of 2025. My personal opinion is, i don´t think it´s that brilliant. I do think this film holds some really solid levels of quality, especially when it comes to the acting, the costume deisgn and some really effective dialogue scenes. But best film of 2025? I personally feel that i would have probably chosen the Netflix horror film Frankenstein over this one if im being completely honest. Of all films to compare between, why compare Frankenstein to Marty Supreme? One of the biggest issues with Marty Supreme is that the story is all over the place. And even if Frankenstein is a very classic tale that have been told in many different film adaptations, i feel that this version proved to be the most powerful adaptation so far. Director Guillermo del Toro proved with Frankenstein you can make a classic story, tell it slightly different than before and still make if feel so fascinating. I can sort of understand why Marty Supreme needs to be told the way the story is developed, because there are some parts that´s actually really good. But the table tennis scenes is where this film lost me a little bit. Never been interested in table tennis ( even though i have played some back in the early 90´s with school friends ), and even if the table tennis scenes looks good from a technical camera perspective, this is still a sport that i never really cared about. Where this film really works is outside the table tennis scenes where we follow Marty´s chaotic life. This is where things get much more interesting regarding our main character. Lead actor Timothée Chalamet ( really good in the latest Dune films )  as Timmy Mauser is the strongest acting performance in this film. The way he manage to portrait Timmy with facial expressions, his attitude combined with personality is a true winning combination. I personally never cared about if he will be succesfull or not in table tennis, i just want to know how he will be able to control himself before things fall apart. Actress Odessa A´zion gives a really powerful performance as the pregnant character Rachel. The soundtrack filled with 80´s classics actually works well with this film, even though this film is set in the 1950´s. You might think that shouldn´t be possible but this is not an issue for me, somehow the story manage to match to the music. Marty Supreme is a story of finding your place in life, taking chances and work really hard to reach your future goals. A film filled with real top quality acting, smooth dialogue and strong characters. Director Josh Safdie may not have made a future classic, but this is definetely one of the better films i have seen this spring. Marty Supreme hits all the right notes and proves that there is still hope for high quality films.

Rating: DDDD

If you want a physical copy from the Uk with some nice special features, you can pick up your own copy on the following link:

MARTY SUPREME BLU-RAY: Amazon.co.uk: Timothée Chalamet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A'zion, Kevin O'Leary, Tyler the Creator, Abel Ferrara, Fran Drescher: DVD & Blu-ray