From 2009 to 2019, brothers Benny and Josh Safdie co-directed five films. After 2019’s acclaimed Uncut Gems, though, this run came to an end.

In 2024, Benny and Josh decided to split as co-directors, and both put out their first features since 2019 in 2025. Interestingly, each told tales of the monomaniacal quests of athletic competitors.

Benny’s The Smashing Machine got decent but not great reviews and flopped at the box office. At least out of the gate, Josh wins the Battle of the Safdies, as his Marty Supreme garnered immense praise, much awards consideration and a nearly $180 million worldwide gross, a robust total for a drama about an arrogant jerk.

Set in New York City circa 1952, Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet) pursues greatness as a table tennis player at all costs. Completely self-absorbed, he uses and abuses those around him in an effort to get to the peak of his sporting field.

After he loses to Japanese athlete Koto Endo (Koto Kawaguchi), Marty becomes even more obsessed. He will stop at nothing to face Endo again and prove his dominance.

Uncut Gems represented my first – and still only – experience with a co-directed Safdie effort. If you click on the link earlier in the review, you can see it didn’t go well, as I found Gems to seem unpleasant.

Given that both Gems and Supreme focus of lead characters who pursue their goals no matter the costs, I feared the 2025 flick would become as off-putting as its predecessor. Happily, Supreme delivers a substantially more compelling journey.

Chalamet carries a lot of the load. If he never wins a Best Actor Oscar, many will likely point to his campaign related to Supreme as a major blown opportunity.

Early in awards season, Chalamet looked like the main contender for the Oscar. However, his antics over time made him appear arrogant and possibly prompted Academy voters to pick Michael B. Jordan for Sinners.

Honestly, it seems possible that the negative reaction to Chalamet’s behavior over the months prior to the Oscars might’ve damaged all award hopes for Supreme, as despite nine nominations, it took home zero trophies. That doesn’t top the record for futility tied by 1977’s The Turning Point and 1985’s The Color Purple, but it nonetheless represents a pretty substantial disappointment.

We’ll likely never know the interior motives of the Academy voters, but Chalamet got shafted. While Jordan did just fine in his dual Sinners roles, the limitations of those parts mean he couldn’t match up to the stellar work Chalamet boasts here.

On the surface, Marty should become a persistently annoying and unlikable character, and he does fall into those categories at times. However, we still kind of root for Marty in spite of all his flaws.

This occurs despite Chalamet’s relentless refusal to beg for audience affection. He never attempts to soften the part or make him anything other than the relentless obsessive he is.

However, someone like Marty couldn’t succeed without the support of others. Even the vast majority of his actions exist for his own benefit, Marty must show enough charm and charisma for us to accept that fellow characters will try to help.

Of course, the fast-talking and self-promoting Marty doesn’t really give most of these folks a chance to say no. Chalamet plows ahead and displays little concern for likeability.

The handsome Chalamet also shows little vanity as the pock-marked and unibrowed Marty. Chalamet fully inhabits the role in a stunning performance that carries a lot of the film.

Safdie also maintains a nearly relentless pace that makes Supreme a pretty wild romp. Marty’s journey goes so off the rails that it stretches credulity, but Safdie delivers it all at such speed that we get swept up and don’t question the believability.

Because I so disliked Uncut Gems, I expected to feel the same about Marty Supreme. Instead, it becomes a brisk and fascinating tale of an obsessive competitor that entertains from start to finish.

Marty Supreme appears in an aspect ratio of 2.39:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. A native 4K production, the Dolby Vision image looked very good.

No unintentional signs of softness materialized. Outside of some stylistic choices, the movie offered strong accuracy and delineation.

The film lacked shimmering or jaggies, and I saw no edge haloes. Grain felt natural.

Occasional specks materialized, but these provided another intentional filmmaking choice, as I saw these theatrically as well. Though I thought this turned into a silly affectation, I couldn’t fault this disc’s replication of these.

The film’s palette leaned toward Hollywood Standard Orange and Teal. Uncreative though these colors might seem, the disc reproduced them well, and HDR gave them added heft.

Blacks appeared dense and firm, while low-light shots looked smooth and concise. HDR brought extra punch to contrasts and whites. Even with those intentional “flaws”, this still became a fine visual presentation.

Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, the movie’s Dolby Atmos soundtrack served the story well. Music became the dominant factor, as the score and various songs broadened around the room in an active manner.

Effects came with less to do, but table tennis competitions brought good involvement. A few other more dynamic scenes also used the channels in a vivid way, though much of the track remained oriented toward general environmental material.

Audio quality satisfied, with speech that always appeared natural and distinctive. Music showed impressive range and punch.

Effects felt accurate and tight, without distortion or other issues. The soundtrack made sense for the story at hand.

How did this 4K UHD compare with the Blu-ray version? Both came with identical audio.

The Dolby Vision UHD boasted stronger colors and definition. It turned into the superior reproduction of the film.

A few extras crop up here, and we open with an audio commentary from co-writer/director Josh Safdie. He offers a running, screen-specific look at story/characters, influences, cast and performances, sets and locations, photography, music, historical elements and period components, themes, costumes and makeup, and connected domains.

Safdie brings a chatty and highly informative discussion here. He touches on a ton of useful topics and makes this a pretty terrific track.

Also on the 4K disc, a program called Total Immersion occupies 22 minutes, 17 seconds and features Safdie, production designer Jack Fisk, costume designer Miyako Bellizzi, set decorator Adam Willis and actor Kevin O'Leary.

"Immersion" concentrates on attempts to recreate 1952 via sets, costumes, photography, and props. The show comes with good info but it also tends to feel awfully self-congratulatory.

On the included Blu-ray copy of the film, we get some additional components, and Dream Big goes for 19 minutes, 59 seconds. It offers remarks from Safdie, Willis, Fisk, Bellizzi, composer Daniel Lopatin, and actors Timothée Chalamet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin O’Leary, Tyler “The Creator” Okonma.

The featurette examines story/characters, research and the tale’s development, aspects of the shoot, cast and performances, Safdie’s approach on the set, period details, photography, costumes and set design and music. The added perspectives add some new details but “Big” feels a little too superficial and promotional.

Like apparently all A24 releases, this one comes with six Photo Cards that display shots from the film. Taken by Atsushi Nishijima, they look good.

A fast-paced look at an arrogant narcissist, Marty Supreme cranks along relentlessly and keeps us engaged the whole time. Backed by a stellar lead performance, this turns into a wild ride. The 4K UHD boasts strong picture along with good audio and a few bonus materials. We find a rollicking look at a less than sympathetic character.