(KTLA) — The cinematic landscape is filled with stories of individuals who were convinced they were meant for greatness and achieved it. However, Josh Safdie’s sports drama “Marty Supreme” offers a twist by delving into the consequences of being mistaken about one’s destiny and the aftermath.

Beware, spoilers for “Marty Supreme” follow.

In this film, Timothée Chalamet portrays Marty Mauser, a rising star in the niche yet competitive realm of table tennis. Marty’s life is a series of less-than-ideal circumstances: he toils at a shoe store with little passion, has complicated relations with a married neighbor, and is perpetually strapped for cash.

Undeterred, Marty sets out to compete in a championship, convinced it will launch him as the American icon of table tennis. His confidence is so unwavering that he persuades a wealthy friend’s father to back a line of “Marty Supreme”-branded orange ping pong balls. Marty indeed reaches the finals, but to his dismay, he encounters an unexpected opponent from Japan who decisively defeats him.

After an embarrassing public display of sore losing (which only helps his competitor become more famous), Marty retreats back to the U.S. with even more to prove. But will money, his family and friends, and the consequences of his rash decisions stop him?

Though “Marty Supreme” is loosely inspired by real-life table tennis player Marty Reisman, the filmmakers have stressed the film is not a biopic, and that the film is fiction. So much so that the words “inspired by” or “based on” appear nowhere in the film’s marketing or runtime. This is probably good news for the late Reisman, as Chalamet’s Mauser wouldn’t necessarily be a compliment of a portrayal.

Chalamet (who turns 30 on Saturday), owns the screen like never before as the slick and charming Marty, who knows how to get what he wants and is willing to do questionable things to get the rest. In “Marty Supreme,” gone is the soft and emotional Chalamet of “Call Me By Your Name” or the quiet command he displayed in “Dune.” Here, Chalamet plays a guy, an overconfident, fast-talking and desperate guy — more in the vein of anti-hero main characters from the films of Scorsese and Mann. Chalamet has never given more to a performance and never had more to juggle than he does here, and he does all of it perfectly. I’d call it a movie star-making role if I didn’t already think he was one. If anything, the performance banks multiple credits toward Chalamet’s proclamation during his February SAG Awards acceptance speech that he’s “in pursuit of greatness.” He openly wants to be “one of the greats” and maybe he actually will be.

The film is also populated with robust characters both large and small, including Kay (Gwyneth Paltrow), an actress turned trophy wife for Milton Rockwell (“Shark Tank”‘s Kevin O’Leary, in his debut role), a mega-businessman who sniffs out Marty’s B.S. from a mile away. It’s always nice to be reminded how terrific an actress Paltrow is, and in Kay, the 53 year-old Academy Award winner radiates dissatisfied glamour the way only Gwyneth Paltrow could.

Meanwhile, Odessa A’zion (HBO’s “I Love LA”) plays Marty’s sometimes-neighbor, Rachel, a childhood friend who wants nothing but to be with Marty. Rachel’s yearning devotion gives the film a welcome bit of heart to counterbalance some of Marty’s ruthlessness. A’zion would be a wonderful choice for a Best Supporting Actress nod at the forthcoming 98th Academy Awards.

On the technical side of things, “Marty Supreme” is director Safdie’s first film since 2019’s underrated crime thriller “Uncut Gems,” which builds upon that film’s rapid pacing, sharp cuts and stirring action, but without quite as much claustrophobic stress. Though there’s plenty of tension to go around in “Marty,” as most of the film finds the would-be great athlete scrambling to get enough money for what he believes is his make-or-break second championship in Tokyo.

How well the screenplay, co-written by Safdie and Ronald Bronstein (“Uncut Gems”), operates feels like a mystery, as someone who has attempted writing screenplays. It’s a marvel of a tension-building driven by character moments. Although “Marty Supreme” builds and builds toward one moment that feels enormous, its script and shots don’t discount greater insights into its characters or its places (in-and-around New York). In this way, “Marty Supreme” feels full and satisfying, offering most everything one could want in a film (including its banger original score by Daniel Lopatin).

Marty is changed by film’s end, for although he desperately manages to eke out a non-official win over his former Japanese rival, what it took to make it happen feels more like an embarrassment than a victory.

Marty returns to the U.S. to attend to Rachel, who, earlier in the film, he abandoned at the hospital after a gun fight goes awry. She’s now given birth. Marty kisses a sleeping Rachel, telling her — for the first time in the film — that he loves her. Next, he heads to the newborn nursery to view “his” child, who up until this point he’s denied fathering.

The final shot of the film lingers on a weeping Chalamet as Marty looks on at his baby and Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” plays. It’s an ending that leaves room for speculation about Marty’s feelings, though I tend to view it as the character’s crash landing into acceptance: Acceptance of his own averageness, acceptance of a dream coming to its inevitable conclusion, and, perhaps more positively, acceptance of new dreams.

“Marty Supreme” is a brilliant and comprehensive portrait of those who dare to shoot for the stars and miss; making the film an all-too relatable mirror of the shortcomings all of us must face at some point in our lives. It’s my favorite film of 2025.

“Marty Supreme” is in theaters nationwide now.

Score: ★★★★★

Nexstar’s Russell Falcon is an entertainment critic and voting member of multiple critics’ organizations. You can find him on Instagram, X, TikTok and Substack.