Marty Supreme: Movie Review

Marty Supreme presents itself as a sports film, but it isn’t really about victory, legacy, or even competition. It’s a hyper focused character study of an athlete whose entire sense of self is tied to proving his superiority even when the proof is unnecessary, humiliating, or already lost.

At its core The film follows Marty not through triumph, but through obsession. His athletic life becomes a tunnel. Everything else relationships, morality, dignity, even reality gets stripped away in service of his ego. Winning isn’t the goal anymore. Validation is.

What makes the film compelling is that Marty’s passion slowly reveals itself as arrogance. His drive isn’t inspiring it’s consuming. He is willing to get Everyone around him, dragged into the consequences of his choices, while he remains fixated on himself.

One of the most telling moments in the film is when Marty is so desperate to continue his pursuit that he agrees to degrade himself just for the chance to move forward. When another man suggests that he humiliate himself in exchange for plane tickets to Japan, Marty doesn’t hesitate. That scene isn’t played for shock it’s played for truth. It shows just how far he’s willing to go, even sacrificing his own self-respect, to prove something that didn’t need proving in the first place.

Because by that point, the truth is already clear: he lost. Not just the rivalry, but the internal battle. The need to be seen as great has overtaken any sense of dignity or proportion. His ego demands constant feeding, even when the cost is humiliation.

In this sense, Marty isn’t a hero. He’s the villain not in a dramatic way, but in a painfully realistic one. He is selfish, egotistical, and entitled. His ambition justifies everything. The damage left behind doesn’t matter as long as his self-image survives.

This becomes especially evident in how he treats the woman he is involved with the wife of the man who owns the pen company. Despite actively pursuing her, benefiting from her presence, and wanting her, he later degrades her without hesitation. The ease with which he disrespects her reveals who he really is. Desire, for him, is about ownership, not connection. Once someone stops serving his narrative, respect disappears instantly.

The film delivers one final, quiet blow at the end. The child implied to be Marty’s, the child that Marty is willing to look at it as the one pivotal point in his life that will bring his ego back down to earth turns out to look exactly like his long term ex lovers husband. It’s a subtle but brutal reminder that life refuses to confirm Marty’s version of events . Even when he believes he has finally caught a break, reality remains unmoved.

What elevates Marty Supreme beyond a standard sports drama is Timothée Chalamet’s performance. He completely outshines the rest of the cast. Not because they are weak, but because his portrayal is so dominant that everyone else fades into the background. It’s difficult to remember anyone else in the film faces blur, roles dissolve while his presence lingers long after the credits.

Chalamet plays Marty as a deeply familiar figure… a man we’ve all encountered in real life. Arrogant, egotistical, entitled. Willing to embarrass himself, sell his values, and take dangerous risks just to soothe his ego. This kind of personality isn’t rare, especially among elite athletes. You see it echoed in extreme performers like the skyscraper climber recently profiled on Netflix Alex Honnold who prioritize personal achievement above everyone and everything else around them.

Marty Supreme is a great film not because its protagonist is admirable, but because it refuses to pretend he is. It shows how passion mutates into arrogance, how ambition becomes cruelty, and how success, when stripped of empathy, turns hollow.

By the end, Marty may call himself the best.

But the film leaves you questioning whether that title has any meaning at all when it costs him his dignity and everyone else along the way.