150 Word Review: 'Marty Supreme' (2025) + The Top 5 Movies of 2025
Up the creek
America loves a winner. Timothée Chalamet has the energy of an electric ferret in director Josh Safdie’s Marty Supreme, a chaotic sports flick set in 1950s New York City. Chalamet is Marty, a fast-talking schnorrer who, like Mozart, is gifted: he’s really good at table tennis. Kevin O’Leary is a little too pleased with himself as a smug millionaire. Gwyneth Paltrow glows as a washed-up star. Odessa A’zion is Marty Supreme’s secret weapon: the main character’s equal.
Marty hungers for glory. There’s a brief, devastating Holocaust story about community; not everyone is a selfish POS. Marty Supreme works because of Chalamet’s dynamic performance: he understands his dirtbag character even when the director doesn’t. Anachronistic music pounds; there’s a dog-napping and a gunfight. Talent isn’t redemptive, nor is fatherhood. This movie is a character study that turns gooey in the middle because Safdie doesn’t keep his eye on the ping-pong ball.
Top 5 Movies of 2025
5. 150 Word Review: ‘On Becoming a Guinea Fowl’
4. 150 Word Review: ‘Splitsville’
3. 150 Word Review: ‘One Battle After Another’
2. 150 Word Review: ‘Sorry, Baby’
1. 150 Word Review: ‘Sinners’
New 150 Word Review: ‘It Was Just an Accident’ (2025)
New 150 Word Review: ‘Sisu: Road To Revenge’ (2025)
Random 150 Word Review: ‘Batman Returns’ (1992)
With the knowledge that I will be seeing at least more highly-acclaimed film before the year is out (The Secret Agent), my top five as it stands:
1. Bugonia
2. The Life of Chuck
3. It Was Just an Accident
4. The Ballad of Wallis Island
5. Marty Supreme
Sinners, The Naked Gun, The Baltimorons, Bad Shabbos, and Wake Up Dead Man would fill out the top ten in some order.
So glad you loved Splitsville! I only recently saw it and immediately put it in my Top Ten.