"Marty Supreme" Teaser Trailer: Timothée Chalamet Plays a Cocky Ping Pong Prodigy in Josh Safdie’s Ambitious New York Drama with Gwyneth Paltrow
Josh Safdie's first solo feature follows a swagger-filled dreamer chasing glory in the competitive world of table tennis.
Let’s be honest: the idea of “dreaming big” feels more and more like a pipe dream these days. The old belief that anyone with a big dream could someday make it big now feels like it’s drifting farther and farther out of reach. Not to sound too pessimistic, but sometimes the reality of the world—or your current situation—doesn’t quite match the idealism we were raised to believe. Dare we say, the old notion of the American Dream, or at least what we were promised, just isn’t what it used to be.
But perhaps because it has been ingrained into the fabric of American consciousness, even the slightest sliver of hope can be enough to keep people chasing it. Work hard, keep pushing, and one day you’ll finally cross that invisible finish line you’ve been told about since childhood. And anyone with a dream big enough can do the same... at least, that’s the story we’ve all been sold.
And it seems filmmaker Josh Safdie is exactly the kind of salesman ready to spin that story into something wild, rousing, and impossible to look away from. Marty Supreme marks Josh Safdie’s first solo feature since parting ways with his brother Benny Safdie.
The duo first broke onto the indie film scene with their 2009 mumblecore-tinged comedy Daddy Longlegs and their 2014 raw, drug-addiction homeless drama Heaven Knows What. But it wasn’t until their anxiety-inducing, run-and-gun thrillers, 2017’s Good Time and 2019’s Uncut Gems, that they truly put their names on the map.
Now, with Benny off acting, producing, and writing his own projects, Josh is stepping up to show what he can do on his own. The result is this highly anticipated period New York drama featuring one of the hottest actors working today, Timothée Chalamet, fresh off his Oscar-nominated turn as Bob Dylan in the biopic A Complete Unknown.
In Marty Supreme, Chalamet plays a scrappy 1950s dreamer named Marty Mauser. Brimming with swagger and confidence, Marty is a young hotshot ping pong prodigy willing to go to hell and back for a shot at glory. He has big dreams, but even bigger ambitions—to be the greatest in the world at what he does, no matter what it costs him.
In the newly released teaser trailer for Marty Supreme, we get our first glimpse of Chalamet’s Marty Mauser in all his eccentric glory. Dressed in nothing but boxers, a trench coat, 1950s-style rimmed glasses, and a thin pencil mustache, Marty stands on a bed inside a lavish hotel room, phone pressed to his ear.
He’s calling a beautiful woman he just spotted in the lobby—a glamorous movie star named Carol Dunne, played here by Gwyneth Paltrow.
Marty
(on the phone):
Well, I’ve never talked to an actual movie star. You know, I’m something of a performer too.
Carol
(on the phone):
Are you?
Marty
(turning on his cocky charm):
Yeah, you don’t believe me? You got the Daily Mail in front of you?
Carol
(looking down at a newspaper featuring a grainy photo of Marty Mauser beneath the bold headline: “The Chosen One”):
This is you?
Marty:
Yeah, the “chosen one.” Nice picture, right?
The opening scene of the first Marty Supreme trailer tells you everything you need to know about Chalamet’s character. He’s cocky as hell, brimming with ambition, thinks the world of himself, and has the nerve to cold-call a beautiful movie star out of the blue.
Now, this is either the biggest douchebag in the world—or the kind of larger-than-life showman you can’t help but root for. Or maybe both. Maybe someone with this much ambition can’t be one without also being the other.
And in America, since its earliest days, we can’t help but love a great story about a winner with nothing to lose. In fact, winners—right or wrong—are the ones who get to write their own legacies… their own history. But the great dichotomy of American culture is that as much as we value winners and champions, we also love our underdogs and dark horses, even if they don’t end up winning in the end. In fact, underdogs with the sheer tenacity to keep trying just might be the very thing we love most about these stories.
Now we have no clue how Marty Supreme will turn out. Whether Chalamet’s Marty will end up becoming the greatest ping pong player in the world, or if his life will come crashing and burning instead. Well, the fact that the film is set in the past makes us believe this type of unfiltered ambition has always been part of the American story. But one that sadly feels more like a cinematic-heightened dream than a reality today.
The poster for this movie reads “dream big” (see below). Well, the problem isn’t that people aren’t dreaming big anymore, it’s that those dreams aren’t coming true the way they once did. And it ain’t from a lack of trying, that’s for sure.
Josh Safdie directs the film and once again co-wrote the screenplay with his longtime writing, producing partner, and editor Ronald Bronstein, who has co-written and edited most of the Safdie brothers’ films since starring in and co-writing Daddy Longlegs. Since then, Bronstein has co-written, co-produced, and edited Heaven Knows What, Good Time, and Uncut Gems.
Meanwhile, Benny Safdie has his own film coming out this year as well. It’s the sports drama biopic The Smashing Machine, featuring Dwayne Johnson as wrestler-turned-MMA fighter Mark Kerr—a project where Benny wrote, directed, produced, and edited on his own. That film is set for release in October, also from A24.
Joining Chalamet and Paltrow in the cast of Marty Supreme are Odessa A’zion, Fran Drescher, Sandra Bernhard, Tyler Okonma (aka Tyler the Creator), filmmaker Abel Ferrara, magician Penn Jillette, famed French highwire artist Philippe Petit, and—most surprisingly—Shark Tank entrepreneur Kevin “Mr. Wonderful” O’Leary in a substantial supporting role.
Marty Supreme is slated to open in theaters on Christmas Day, December 25, via A24.
The film is already considered A24’s most expensive production, surpassing Civil War’s $50 million budget.
Official Synopsis:
Marty Mauser, a young man with a dream no one respects, goes to hell and back in pursuit of greatness.