Forward
Hey everyone! First post of 2026 and this one should be a fairly long one. I have had a lot of pent-up feelings about this movie most of you might have heard about–Marty Supreme.
To save the rambling: at first I was underwhelmed, but with time and thought, the movie grew on me. The more I went down my own rabbit holes and saw other people’s views on the movie, the more I began to wonder if we had all watched the same film.
Nevertheless, here I am, and here is my own take on Marty Supreme.
Thoughts
To get the surface-level stuff out of the way: the movie was great, the actors were great, and the story was painful, yet brilliant.
This movie quite literally had me having a panic attack during every single sequence. The way tension is used, and the way the Safdie brothers were able to develop a sense of unease about ping-pong, is beyond me.
However, most of my thoughts about the movie go outside of the script and center around interpretation, the message, and the lessons. This is the meat of what I want to say about this movie–so bear with me.
Meaning
First off–you are not supposed to like Timothée Chalamet’s Marty Mauser as a person. Let’s get this very straight. He’s a terrible person who manipulated some of his closest friends and family to help him reach a goal that he never ends up realizing (ish). We can talk about his cocky nature or his sense of entitlement regarding the championships, but I think everyone reading this gets the point: Marty Mauser is a terrible person, and this is exactly how we should see him. Nothing less, nothing more.
However, this movie is so much more than the depiction of a “shit person.” If that were really it, I would likely not be writing this at all. Marty Supreme is a movie that embodies the phrase “Ball is Life.” This is why the opening scene of the movie is literally sperm racing to an egg–to signify that the ball (the egg) is what gives life to the sperm.
Marty Supreme is the most raw interpretation of the phrase “Ball is Life.” It is up to us as viewers to watch the movie with this in mind. When we do, we step away from the surface of who Marty is and find something deeper: a dreamer.
I applaud this movie for this approach and hope some of you can go back to it and see it in this light. The movie then goes from something depressing into something truly exhilarating.
Drive & Delusion
Throughout my life, the most successful people I know are also some of the most delusional people you will meet.
Some of the greatest advice I have gotten is to be as delusional as possible. Because if every ounce of your soul believes in your delusion, that delusion often becomes a reality. This is the backbone of the story of Marty Supreme. We are cast through this journey in which Marty showcases exactly how much he wanted to win, and he did everything he could to do it. Marty quite literally has the DAWG in him.
Think about it. At the beginning of the movie, he rejects his uncle’s offer to become the manager of the shoe store, despite being a talented salesman. Considering the movie takes place around 10 years after the downfall of Nazi Germany, for a Jewish person to get a role like that in New York City could change his life. Marty is all-in on this dream. Even despite his failure the first time he competes against Endo, he still needs to prove to himself that he is the best in the world.
Marty knows he is the best in the world, in fact, he says this to everyone around him and touts it despite losing the world championship. Why? Because he is Marty Mauser, and to him, losing was never an option.
This delusion drives him into madness, and that madness gets him to where he had always wanted to be–in front of Endo, playing table tennis.
Now, some can argue that “Oh, that’s not what he wanted,” or “Marty failed the moment the commissioner wouldn’t let him compete in Worlds,” and to that, I have to disagree.
When Marty lost, he didn’t blame the tournament or the crowd; he blamed the style that Endo used to beat him. He had never played against it; therefore, in his eyes, he could have never won. His anger is toward his loss to Endo and that specific playstyle. To him, he needs to beat Endo. Even if there is no trophy, he will earn his own resolve. To Marty, pride is what drives him–not the trophy, but that feeling of security that he is the best. This is why Marty falls to the floor when he beats Endo. To him, beating Endo was his magnum opus. He proved to himself that he is worthy of calling himself the best in the world.
Drive is only a motor in a car, but delusion is the gas that pushes you further than you ever could go before.
Uncomfortable Truths
Let’s start with a movie-centric approach. First, the ending can be seen as twofold. To me, it was happy because Marty earns his resolve and cries knowing that he can now be a worthy father. However, there is a side where we can see this as sad.
Marty has just come back from Japan, high off his win against Endo. He comes back to the US only to realize that he is now a father. He has a new responsibility, and table tennis is no longer one of them. The baby culminates into something he now sees as his life, when in reality, all he ever wanted was for ping-pong to be his life. I can see a lot more people agreeing with this take because Marty was a “shit dude.” Do we really think Marty would be satisfied with an exhibition win against Endo? Is he really the best in the world if it isn’t written in global standings? He isn’t swimming in the riches he imagined or the women he thought he’d have. No–he is stuck with a mediocre life that his past self could never swallow.
Whichever ending you see can severely affect your mood regarding this movie. For me, I felt pretty good since I was happy he was going to be a dad, but maybe Marty isn’t so happy. If this affects your viewing and opinions, I completely get it.
Now for the hard-hitting truths: Marty Supreme is an unfiltered version of what it means to be great. Not just good–great. Being great is not a pageant walk. Being great doesn’t mean you can wait for things to come to you. Being great means going after it no matter what, stopping for no one and nothing.
The sad truth is that the majority of “great” people in the world were once not the “greatest” people. Marty Mauser is one of these people. (Take this with a grain of salt–his outcome is debatable, but the drive is a showcase of what it takes to achieve greatness). If you are angry reading this, I get it. I would be too. I know I’m nowhere near greatness, and maybe you aren’t either. The truth is that greatness is rare–extremely rare. You could find it in the 0.01% of the 1%, but even that doesn’t guarantee it. This is the pill that I think many of us need to swallow. We are so harsh about Marty because he is in the pursuit of greatness, and seeing it play out is disturbing because we ourselves are too scared to actually pursue it.
Another take I have–and arguably my hottest–is that we hate Marty because Marty is the manifestation of our “what-ifs.”
What if I decided to drop out and pursue my company?
What if I went all-in on becoming the best poker player in the world?
What if I decided that one day I’m going to sign up for an Ironman and dedicate all my free time to training for it?
What if. What if. What if. The worst thing a human can hear.
We see the most insane, hungry, and driven version of ourselves when we see Marty Supreme, and that is how it should be.
End
Your take on Marty Supreme, I believe, says a lot about you as a person. Not “good” or “bad”–that’s too surface-level. But I do think it says a lot about how hungry you are. How bad do you want to win in your own game? Honestly, it’s a pretty good litmus test if you want to learn something interesting about a person.
And please do not tell me, “Oh, why would we ever idolize Marty Mauser? He is a bad person, blah blah blah.”
He is a bad person. Do not look up to him. But do acknowledge that he did whatever he could to be the best.