If the sports biopic by way of Uncut Gems sounds like your jam, then Marty Supreme is the movie you’re looking for. It’s interesting that in this year we’ve seen both of the Safdie brothers tackle the genre in wildly different ways. There was Benny Safdie’s thoughtful MMA drama The Smashing Machine, while Josh goes in a completely different direction with Marty Supreme, a high-stress, kinetic whirlwind starring Timothee Chalamet as the ultimate egotist ping-pong player, Marty Mauser.
If you’re asking yourself, How does someone make ping-pong exciting? Well, it’s not that crazy. Filmmakers have been making chess exciting on the big screen for decades. What Marty Supreme does is not necessarily focus on the actual sport of table tennis, instead using it as the motivating force for someone whose confidence in himself is limitless. Deservedly or not, Marty is going to see his dream through and nobody is going to stand in his way.
This idea that nothing can stop Marty’s ascent to ping-ping greatness is what Marty Surpreme is all about. Marty has plenty of friends, associates, and colleagues, all of whom see their lives upended or outright destroyed because of his single-minded focus. Set in the 1950s, and loosely based on the story of table tennis champ Marty Reisman, the film opens with Marty scheming his way into the pants of Rachel (Odessa A’zion), a married woman and a longtime friend. In the close Jewish community that is Marty’s circle, he’s a destructive force, but oh so damn convincing. He could sell ice to an Eskimo, if he decided to put his mind to that. Marty is the type who could do anything he set his mind to, but it just so happens that he’s great with a racket in his hand.
Lanky, sweaty, and sporting a unibrow and thin mustache, Chalamet gives off young De Niro vibes in one of the best performances of his already stellar career. Always on the hustle with a mouth that goes a mile a minute, Marty is forever on the hunt for the next payday to keep his ping-pong dream afloat. With expensive overseas competitions always looming, Marty runs roughshod over everyone he meets to get the next score. Gwyneth Paltrow plays a fading movie star, Kay Stone, who Marty seduces with nothing more than a telephone and his quick wit. Shark Tank‘s Kevin O’Leary plays her husband, Milton Rockwell, a pen magnate whose business relationship with Marty is a roller coaster of abuses. Rapper Tyler the Creator plays Marty’s best friend, Wally, a taxi driver who knows his buddy’s schemes all too well, but still succumbs to the inevitable downward turn.
It’s to Chalamet’s credit that you don’t ALWAYS want to strangle Marty. He’s only annoying most of the time. The rest, you’re rooting for him to somehow pull it off. Because buried deep inside Marty is this guy who came up from nothing and perhaps knows this is the one chance he’s got at greatness before simple domesticity takes over. Marty is a fascinating character, and this could easily become a defining role for Chalamet.
All of that said, Marty Supreme isn’t without its faults. At a too-long 149-minutes, the film sometimes feels overstuffed with subplots best served elsewhere. A storyline involving a stolen dog becomes the centerpiece of a Good Time-esque crime sequence that feels like it came from a different movie and drags on forever. The best thing to come out of it is more screen time for A’zion, with her and Chalamet coming across like a small-time Bonnie & Clyde.
With crisp lensing by Darius Khondji and a buzzing Daniel Lopatin score filled with eclectic cuts, Marty Supreme is a film that gets your blood pumping from beginning to end. Chalamet continues to prove any doubters wrong, and there’s little doubt he’ll be back in the Best Actor mix again, and perhaps the third time will be the charm.
A24 will release Marty Supreme in theaters on Christmas Day.
