Warning: Spoilers ahead. 

By Parker Ruth 

The movie Marty Supreme, released in December 2025, is the story of ping-pong player Marty Reisman, who travels the world in the 1950s trying to become the best player ever but runs into adversity when playing a Japanese player Koto Endo. Although the movie is not fully based on a true story, much of it is true. 

A scene from the film where Marty Reisman poses for a photo of all the countries that are in a tournament. Photo credit: Central Pictures/A24 via Screen Rant.

The movie is more about money and crime than ping-pong itself. Reisman is a hustler who would show up to bowling alleys, playing with his friend and losing game after game, so that he can grab someone’s attention. This person sees the opportunity to win and jumps into Reisman’s game to bet but ends up getting hustled by Reisman and losing all of their money.

Reisman commits more serious crimes as well. Reisman’s childhood friend’s husband had beaten her, so Reisman travels downstairs in their building and strikes him with a trophy he had won in a ping-pong tournament. He steals one of his friend’s cars and crashes it, then coming back to his house to apologize and gets thrown out of the house. 

I found that the movie focused more on money than ping-pong. What made my experience better was not knowing that it was based on a true story until after the movie. This made me realize how complicated this man’s life was. Overall, I liked the movie, and so did two of my friends. 

Reisman in a ping-pong match. Photo credit: Central Pictures/A24 via Screen Rant.

I saw the movie with Freddie Reed (‘27) and Fletcher Bor (‘27). Bor said he “really enjoyed Marty’s high level of confidence, because it’s a level of confidence I hope to have someday.” Reisman does not just have the confidence and motivation of a ping-pong player, but he also has confidence with relationships. Reed said, “I liked it because of how much the movie did not just involve ping-pong but risk-taking, too.” 

Marty Supreme was first developed by writer and director Josh Safdie after he was given a book by his wife called The Money Player, written by Reisman about his journeys playing ping-pong. Safdie cast award-winner Timothée Chalamet as Reisman, a great option, because of the effort that he put into it and how well-known he is as an up-and-coming star, as well as his promotions of the film. One example of Chalamet’s promotional savvy is that he shipped 100 Marty Supreme hoodies to celebrities like Tom Brady, Stephen Curry, and Justin Bieber. This was just one of many tactics that he used to promote the film, so celebrities would post pictures, providing free advertisement for the movie.

Chalamet promoting the movie with ping-pong ball bodyguard and sweatshirt. Photo credit: @timotheenation via X.

Another way of advertising the movie was having bodyguards dress up with orange ping-pong balls on their heads with the words “Marty Supreme” on them. The reasoning behind this was because Reisman first came up with the idea of orange ping-pong balls instead of white ones, because it was hard to see a white ping-pong ball against an opposing player’s white shirt. While having his bodyguards dressed up, Chalamet also joined the comedian Druski on one of his YouTube videos, which ended up getting over 1 million views. 

Chalamet earned the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture—Musical or Comedy and Critics’ Choice Best Actor Award in early 2026. He is nominated for the Best Actor Oscar, which will be awarded tonight during the Academy Awards, which begin at 7 p.m. on ABC and Hulu.