New York. 1950s. Marty Mauser supports himself by selling shoes, but he has a consuming passion: ping-pong; a weakness: gambling; and a boundless ambition: to become the best table tennis player around. Heedless of the general scorn, the boy is confident he will succeed. In his daring rollercoaster of scams, disqualifications, and triumphs, he will meet Carlon and Rachel, two brilliant women who will indelibly shape his destiny. His desire for glory, however, will lead him to hell, losing money, love, and fame.

American critics have acclaimed it almost unanimously: for Clayton Davis (Variety), it is “a mix of comedy, action, and sports that defies easy categorization,” David Canfield of The Hollywood Reporter called it “grandiose and exhilarating,” while for Jake Coyle of the Associated Press, it is “a madcap ode to those who struggle.”

With a cinematic aesthetic that hints at 1980s Hollywood and syncopated editing, the nearly two-and-a-half-hour film eschews the canonical biopic for a unique, adrenaline-fueled slice of life that revitalizes the American genre of scam films.

The plot traces the changing fortunes of Marty Reisman, a ping-pong star in the 1950s and 1960s, one of the most decorated athletes in the sport with over twenty national and international titles. A bold and unconventional athlete, enigmatic and contradictory, he repeatedly bet and had others bet on his losses, deceiving various bookies and suffering heavy suspensions.

New Yorker Josh Safdie, who previously directed with his brother Benny—fresh off the 2025 Venice Film Festival Silver Lion for The Smashing Machine, also produced by A24—returns to directing solo, following his debut drama, The Pleasure of Being Robbed, with a film about a fellow New Yorker of Jewish descent played by a New York-born actor.

Ronald Bronstein—also the editor and a longtime collaborator of the Safdie brothers—wrote and co-produced with the director, A24’s most ambitious film to date. Production costs approached $70 million, the New York studio’s maximum financial effort. Filming in the US metropolis and Japan wrapped in February 2025.

The goal is clear: to shuffle the cards at the 2026 Oscars at the last minute by sweeping the cast and crew. The Trojan horse for the Academy Award is, of course, Timothée Chalamet, who, for the second consecutive time after A Complete Unknown, embodies a public figure of twentieth-century America.

After extensive preparation on the table tennis courts, the Franco-New York star, almost unrecognizable due to his Stanislavski-esque mimicry on the set of Safdie (whom he himself called “the Scorsese of our time”), is seeking his third Oscar nomination with this film, at just thirty years old (the last to do so was James Dean), to finally clinch the statuette awarded for Best Actor in a Leading Role. The award eluded him with Call Me by Your Name in 2018 and especially last year with the Dylan biopic. Despite only one public screening, bookmakers already consider him the favorite, but a close battle looms with his mentor DiCaprio, who is also competing for the same category at the Golden Globes with A Battle After Another.

Safdie and A24 have assembled a top-notch cast both behind and in front of the camera: Gwyneth Paltrow, playing an adult woman who begins a relationship with young Marty, is vying for a new nomination 27 years after her Oscar triumph with Shakespeare in Love. Twenty-five-year-old Odessa A’zion, acclaimed in Until Dawn, has the same ambitions, but is a different age.

After eight years, director Abel Ferrara, also a New Yorker like Fran Drescher, returns to an acting role. Ferrara stars alongside, among others, “Shark Tank” icon Kevin O’Leary, making his big-screen debut, as well as rapper Tyler, the Creator.

The film was photographed on 35mm film by veteran photographer Darius Khondji, emphasizing brown tones and textured shots. The production designer is the legendary Jack Fisk, who has collaborated with Lynch, Iñárritu, Scorsese, De Palma, and P. T. Anderson. The score is by Daniel Lopatin, who previously composed for the Safdies on Good Time and Uncut Gems.

Marty Supreme is A24’s mainstay to dominate the American Christmas box office and pave the way for the Awards season: it will be released in the US on December 25th and in Italy on January 26th with I Wonder Pictures, to avoid competition from Buen Camino and Avatar: Fire and Ashes.