Marty Supreme? More like Marty Mediocre

This image released by A24 shows Timothée Chalamet in a scene from "Marty Supreme." (A24 via AP)

Spoilers!

“Marty Supreme” debuted Dec. 25, 2025 in American theaters, starring Gen-Z favorite Timotheé Chalamet, along with Odessa A’Zion, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin O’Leary and even Tyler, The Creator. 

A sprawling marketing campaign preceded the release, with notable moments including Timotheé Chalamet sporting electric orange at premieres, an orange blimp floating above the music festival of co-star Tyler, The Creator and even a never-done-before stunt: Chalamet on top of the Las Vegas Sphere. 

This campaign was wildly successful, according to Business Insider writer Jason Guerrasio, who wrote that “It all led to A24’s most expensive movie ever, blowing past industry expectations for its opening weekend at the box office with over $27 million since Christmas Day.” 

Further, Chalamet has been vying for a Best Actor Academy Award for years, last year proclaiming his desire to “be one of the greats.” Along with starring in “Marty Supreme,” Chalamet was credited as a producer. The film is undoubtedly another Oscar-bid for the actor. But despite this gravitas, I found the plot and experience to be rather underwhelming.

The film has many strong points. The movie captures the milieu of 1950s New York, the postwar environment and some realities for Jewish Americans at this time. “Marty Supreme” does something never done before. It’s new and exciting, and it is certainly well-casted, as it seems almost like the roles were written for the actors themselves. 

Timotheé Chalamet plays Marty Mauser almost unbelievably well, perhaps owing to the fact that he seems to be playing a version of himself: ambitious, charismatic, humorous and somewhat arrogant and entitled.

But, this similarity between the fictional Mauser and the real—or publicly perceived—Chalamet makes the acting somewhat unimpressive. Further, the arrogance of the character seems to mirror the confidence of Chalamet in his own acting skills, without any real showing of this skill, summed up by Letterbox user Angelica Jade Bastién in her review of Chalamet’s performance and the movie generally. While she has several apt criticisms, one line especially sticks out. The film is, “a bit too pleased with itself.” 

I couldn’t agree more. Perhaps expectations were too high following such a press performance, but instead of being impressed by the acting, I felt I was being told to be impressed.

Despite having a runtime of two and a half hours, the film doesn’t bother to tie up any loose ends, adding more and more plot details that become plot holes by the time the film wraps up. Maybe I’m too much of a realist, and I’m not suspending disbelief enough, but it doesn’t make sense to allow Mauser to screw over all those around him, evading the law and committing a multitude of crimes, and come home to a fine-looking family, no law enforcement in sight, everyone happy to forgive him for his dangerous ambitions. 

Even disregarding Mauser’s plot, almost every other character’s storyline was unfinished, leaving more questions than answers. Rachel’s faked domestic violence incident. Kay Stone’s tears at her afterparty. Wally waiting for the money and friendship that was promised to him by Mauser, his best friend. All these left to the wayside. 

Some may argue this is because of Mauser’s own tunnel-vision: to him, the strings aren’t worth tying up. But this makes it all the less believable when he comes home to Rachel—whom he tried to get rid of for the whole of the movie, using her for cash and sex—to tell her he loves her. 

And let it be known: Marty didn’t even win a real match against his rival Koto Endo. Instead, he beat him out in an impromptu exhibition, winning him nothing but enough sympathy from some American Soldiers to get him a flight home. A rather unsatisfying ending to a grandiose movie. 

Perhaps arrogance and self-satisfaction was the name of the game for Marty Supreme. But for this viewer at least, the grandeur wasn’t enough to patch a plot filled with holes and mundane acting.