MARTY SUPREME CHRISTMAS DAY. These four simple words ruled my headspace and became the go-to vocal stim for me and many of my friends this past Christmas break. This phrase is an ode to the hit A24 film “Marty Supreme”, starring Timothée Chalamet, who played Marty Mauser, a ping pong player from the early 1950s. The film was released in theaters on…well, you can probably guess that. To be honest, I know pretty much nothing about ping pong. I sometimes play with my friends, but do not follow it in any way or form, so when I heard that Timmy was playing Marty Mauser, I had to look up who that was, as did many of the people my age who went and saw this movie. But that was not the point of the movie. It is not a story of a ping pong player becoming the best. It is an epic that encapsulates a generation’s striving for success in life.
In this movie, Marty has one dream and one dream only. He wants to be the best, and he will get there anyway he can. He does this with the help of friends and continually finds himself in rather strange situations, such as getting spanked by a top ink pen salesman or trying to find someone’s lost dog after the owner had a bathtub fall on them.
When I first heard of this movie, I knew that I was going to go see it at the first opportunity I got, even though I have no knowledge of the sport. Not because I wanted to become a better ping pong player, but because Timothée Chalamet was in it. In modern times, the idea of a “Movie Star” seems to be on the latter part of its lifespan. Individual actors being in movies do not have the same pull that they did back in the times of Stallone, Schwarzenegger, De Niro, DiCaprio, or any of the other great names that come to mind. Despite this downward trend, we see Chalamet going against the grain. Chalamet himself is one of the best examples I can recall of the idea of the pursuit of greatness.
“I know we’re in a subjective business, but the truth is, I’m really in pursuit of greatness,” Chalamet said after winning the 2025 Screen Actors Guild’s Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role award last February. “I know people don’t usually talk like that, but I want to be one of the greats. I’m inspired by the greats. I’m inspired by the greats here tonight.” He goes on further, acknowledging the actors, as well as non-actors, he draws inspiration from, including Daniel Day-Lewis and Viola Davis, as well as Michael Jordan and Michael Phelps.
“I’m deeply grateful,” said Chalamet. “This [award] doesn’t signify that, but it’s a little more fuel. It’s a little more ammo to keep going.”
This is just one of the many instances of how Chalamet is inspiring a generation. In a time where hard work and dedication don’t seem to be enough to “make it”, this scrawny-white boy is proving everyone wrong.
“Marty Supreme” picks up right where Chalamet left off. As stated earlier, this film focuses on Marty’s desire to be great. The entire film, he tries to get what he feels he is destined to be: number one. He challenges the norms with tooth and nail and stops at nothing to get where he wants to go. At the climax of the film, Marty beats the number one player in the world in a friendly exhibition in Japan, with little to no stakes involved. He celebrates, even sheds some tears, as he, along with the audience watching, thinks that he has done it, he’s become the best.
He’s beaten the best, so that must mean he finally made it.
Riding this “high” of what Marty and the audience believe to be the “happily ever after” Marty learns that his son, whom he never intended to have and for most of the movie did not know was his, has been born. In the hospital, Marty finally meets his son face to face.
In this exact moment, everything changes for Marty and for us.
He realizes that everything that led up to this moment pales in comparison to the newfound satisfaction he finds in his truly greatest accomplishment. As Marty sees the child’s face, he begins to weep, bawling his eyes out, not tears of sadness or disappointment, but tears of sheer, unprecedented fulfillment and joy. He learns that there is more to life than wins or feats, and that the true meaning of life is looking at him from behind a pane of glass, being held up by a nurse. As Marty is weeping, Tears for Fears’ 1985 hit song, “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” starts playing, where the words “Welcome to your life, there’s no turning back” fade in, symbolizing the end of one chapter for Marty, and the beginning of another.
While the film itself does a great job exemplifying Chalamet’s outlook on life, the marketing for the film encompasses how “tapped in” Chalamet is to his target audience, as well as highlighting the fact that he knows how to sell tickets. The campaign, headlined by Chalamet himself, is one of the most recognizable brands, possibly ever. “Marty Supreme” is targeted towards my generation, otherwise known as “Gen-Z”, which Chalamet knows, and adhered to during his promotion of the movie. From posting actors, athletes, or any other person that our generation looks up to in the infamous “Marty Supreme Jackets”, walking around surrounded by a posse of orange ping pong ball-headed individuals, to even being featured in the popular British rapper, EsDeeKid’s music video, Chalamet knows how to get stuff done. He knows who he wants to target and how to get them in the theaters, which he did beautifully.
During the entire lifespan of “Marty Supreme”, from the creation of the script to the present day, Chalamet has donned the motto “Dream Big”. This is not just a motto for Marty’s goals in the film, not even for Chalamet’s dream in his own career, but a phrase emulating the hopes of an entire generation.
When someone tells you to “Dream Big”, that can be applied to anything and everything that someone could be doing. We are all different. We all have different callings. Chalamet knows this, and yet persists with such open, yet somehow at the same time, still specific words of encouragement for anyone who might need it. This film, and Chalamet himself, have helped me, along with many others, see through this lie that the individual will never win on his or her own.
Whether you’re an artist, an engineer, a basketball player, a ping pong player, a musician or anything else in between, you must keep going, you must pursue greatness in yourself. “I have a purpose,” Marty says in the movie. “If you think that it’s some kind of blessing, it’s not. It means I have an obligation to see a very specific thing through.” Just like Marty, and just like Chalamet, we all have a purpose, and we all have a way to get there. We just have to make sure that we all take after Timmy and “Dream Big”.