Gwyneth Paltrow

In Marty Supreme (2025), Gwyneth Paltrow looks at Marty as though she has met his sort before and has yet to decide whether he deserves her attention. As Kay Stone, she can suggest that whole calculation without hurrying to announce it. Josh Safdie builds the film around Timothée Chalamet, but Paltrow's stillness gives us somewhere else to look. We were unexpectedly delighted by her watchfulness, because it makes room for doubt about a hustler the film is otherwise too keen to indulge.

The early films moved from Se7en (1995) to Emma (1996) and Shakespeare in Love (1998). Her ability to suggest feeling beneath a composed face found a clear use in Margot Tenenbaum, her role in Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums (2001). It is also an approach with an obvious risk: if the feeling never becomes legible, she can seem detached. Playing Pepper Potts from Iron Man (2008) through Avengers: Endgame (2019) made franchise work a substantial part of her filmography. Her film appearances grew less frequent before Marty Supreme brought her back to a major dramatic role.

Steven Soderbergh's Contagion (2011), in which she plays Beth Emhoff, gives its ensemble less room for private feeling. It follows the movement of a virus more closely than the lives of the people caught by it, and its coldness is appropriate to the task. We recommend it as a quick, frightening thriller, not as the first place to look for a full account of Paltrow's acting.

Safdie's habit of casting people we believe on sight suits her, although some of the supporting players are left with scarcely a part to play. Kay benefits from our sense that Paltrow does not need to prove she belongs there, and she does not mistake the return for an invitation to overact. The film runs too long, but she does not need to compete with its noise to hold our attention. Start with Marty Supreme; just allow for a film that likes its central character more than we do.