Why Marty Supreme's unlikable characters are still a reason it deserves to win best picture at the 2026 Oscars

Surely destined to succeed at Los Angeles’ Dolby Theatre this year is Josh Safdie’s electric sports drama Marty Supreme. Yes, the “ping-pong movie” that became a talking point over New Year has rallied its way to nine Academy Award nominations, including best director for Josh Safdie and best actor for Timothée Chalamet, alongside a coveted best picture nod. Standing in its path are formidable contenders, from Ryan Coogler’s record-breaking horror Sinners and Chloé Zhao’s delicate adaptation Hamnet to Paul Thomas Anderson’s sprawling political epic One Battle after Another.

Yet for all the richness of this year’s field, no film feels more deserving than Marty Supreme. Aside from being a gripping tale of the fine line between ambition and obsession, it is a high-wire act built almost entirely on people you would never want to know – and it somehow makes them unforgettable.

Loosely inspired by table tennis champion Marty Reisman, Safdie’s first solo feature since his split from brother Benny centres on Marty Mauser (Chalamet), a cocky 1950s New York shoe salesman with two things in inexhaustible supply: ego and ambition. Marty is not a hero in any conventional sense. He is vain, selfish and exhausting. He mistakes self-belief for superiority and treats relationships like stepping stones. In less capable hands than those of Chalamet and Safdie, he would be intolerable.

Chalamet delivers a career-best performance, anchoring the film so completely that our grip on Marty never loosens, however far the character drifts from decency. The role demands charm, arrogance and vulnerability, and Chalamet navigates those shifts with astonishing control. For a three-time nominee who has already claimed the Golden Globe and Critics' Choice awards, this feels like the performance that could finally secure him Oscar gold.

Equally, Safdie understands that cinema doesn’t need comfort to captivate. Marty’s unlikability isn’t a flaw; it’s the engine. Armed with a gift for the game and an even sharper gift of the gab, Marty flatters and manipulates his way to the international stage, aided by a slippery financier (Kevin O’Leary) and his faded Hollywood-star wife (Gwyneth Paltrow), both of whom are just as transactional and self-serving as he is. Together, they create a world where charm is currency and integrity negotiable – and Safdie turns that moral volatility into thrilling cinema.

Even the supporting cast is shaded in moral grey. Marty’s girlfriend Rachel (Odessa A’Zion) initially appears to offer warmth and recognisable vulnerability, a woman bruised by the men in her orbit. Yet she too is entangled in lies and manipulation. His loyal friend Wally, played by a quietly brilliant Tyler Okonma (Tyler, the Creator), seems at first a grounding presence. But Safdie gradually reveals that he is cut from the same cloth, equally capable of deceit when it serves him. While One Battle and Sinners have clear villains in the form of neo-Nazis and vampires, the faults of Marty Supreme’s characters are realistically baked into their personalities, asking complex questions of the viewer about who they’re siding with.

The nearest the film comes to innocence lies on its margins: Marty’s childhood friend Dion (Luke Manley) – the mastermind behind the orange ping pong ball that defined the film’s press campaign – and deaf table tennis player Koto Kawaguchi, whose impactful performance is the perfect antidote to Marty’s exhausting bravado. Yet while these figures offer fleeting notes of sincerity, it is the thornier characters who keep us hooked. In refusing to populate this world with saints, Safdie elevates the film above its peers.

Beneath its propulsive surface, Marty Supreme is a satire dappled by melancholy. Where other nominees address ambition, family and rebellion more directly, Marty Supreme tackles something more knotty – the cultural worship of winning at any cost, asking whether the pursuit of greatness leaves room for connection, humility or love.

It’s the shift in pace at the film’s close where these themes collide. Chalamet delivers a moving performance as the events of Marty’s life culminate in one defining moment. It reframes everything we’ve spent the previous two hours digesting, spitting it out with sobering clarity. Followed by a genius credits sequence, those final minutes secure the film’s place among the year’s very best.

While One Battle triumphed at the BAFTAs, Chalamet is earning deserved acting recognition. His recent speeches – bold declarations about striving for greatness – have prompted murmurs that the line between actor and character may be blurring.

Meanwhile, Safdie’s solo status has been scrutinised following his professional separation from his brother and long-time collaborator. For those waiting to see what he did next, Marty Supreme is proof of artistic identity and confidence for the 41-year-old. To build a film around an antihero is hardly new. To build one around a protagonist with so little instinctive warmth – and still have audiences rooting for him throughout – is rare.

In honouring Marty Supreme, the Academy would be recognising a loud and proud piece of film-making that trusts viewers to embrace complexity over comfort. The film proves that greatness on screen does not require goodness at its centre. Marty’s marathon climb to stardom plays like a breathless sprint, powered by a set of richly complicated characters. It seduces us and holds our attention without asking us to approve of its players. That alchemy – turning unlikeable people into riveting cinema – is precisely why it deserves to win best picture.

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