Marty Supreme

Marty (Timothée Chalamet) shows off his skill at table tennis in Marty Supreme (Distributed by A24)

Marty Supreme is a compelling character study about a hustler named Marty. A very talented table tennis player with delusions of grandeur, he has designs on becoming a global celebrity. All he needs is some cash and then it is just a matter of time. Mega-stardom is his destiny. Directed/cowritten by Josh Safdie, it is strangely reminiscent of his most recent movie, 2019s Uncut Gems. That was also about an arrogant protagonist desperately trying to make enough money to get the opportunity to prove they are a huge success.

Like in that project, Safdie never shies away from Marty’s unlikability. He is a jerk who doesn’t care if he hurts people because it is for the greater good. Once they see how amazing he is everything will be fine. This, of course, presumes that he is the greater good, a concept which is totally unquestionable to Marty. Timothée Chalamet is mesmerizing in the role. Marty had to be charismatic, in a small time New York City con man kind of way, so audiences would believe how persuasively he draws people into his orbit. Even people who know he’s full of crap.

Chalamet is really good as a guy whose only concern is using his ping-pong prowess to impose his importance on the world. The movie is so focused on him that it becomes a bit exhausting after a while, the way he piles schemes and lies on top of each other and constantly has to talk his way out of one mess and into another. That said, it is still quite entertaining and serves as a tremendous showcase for Chalamet’s ability to command the screen.

In the 1950s, Marty Mauser works at his uncle’s shoe store and is having an affair with a married woman. He seems to resent everyone in his life for pushing him to settle down, not acknowledging what he knows as a fact: he is the best table tennis player in the world and that is about to bring him untold riches/fame. His single-minded pursuit of that path, acting at all times as though he is the center of the universe, leads to mounting risks that endanger him and anyone who knows him.

Rachel (Odessa A'Zion)

Marty Supreme (145 minutes, minus the end credits) begins like the setup for the formula sports movie that it most definitely isn’t. We meet Marty, working in a shoe store and offended to be offered a manager position because that would get in the way of his dreams. He ignores his mother, who makes up an emergency to try to get his attention. He clearly has feelings for Rachel, a childhood friend who lives in an apartment downstairs from his mother, with her husband. However, her significance to him pales in comparison to his belief in himself.

It is a little extreme, but maybe he just needs to be humbled before finding himself in hard work? Well, the World Championships don’t go as planned, yet Marty refuses to admit that he isn’t the best. The lengths he will go to earn the money to get to the next World Championships, in Tokyo, where he intends to take his rightful place as the face of the sport, takes up the bulk of the story.

This is not the story of a man coming into himself to become a better person. It is about a selfish hustler smooth-talking people into putting their faith in him, then overestimating his value and needing another helping hand. Marty never thinks ahead to how his bluster and raging ego could create more obstacles for him. Despite his reality, he always thinks the next move is the one that will set him up for life. This is who he is. To him, anything lower than greatness is mediocrity and he won’t accept that.

Josh Safdie keeps his movie humming, rolling from one complication to the next. His supporting cast is good (also featuring Odessa A’Zion as Rachel, Gwyneth Paltrow as a faded movie star and Fran Drescher as Marty’s mom), but this is Timothée Chalamet’s show. While he has already received Best Actor Oscar nominations for Call Me by Your Name and A Complete Unknown, and has a long string of strong performances in addition to those, this may be his most complete. I have never noticed him dominating the screen as he does here. It is impressive work. He is better than the overall movie, which is still really good. Chalamet lifts it to near greatness.

4 out of 5

Cast:

Timothée Chalamet as Marty Mauser

Odessa A’Zion as Rachel Mizler

Gwyneth Paltrow as Kay Stone

Kevin O’Leary as Milton Rockwell

Fran Drescher as Rebecca Mauser

Koto Kawaguchi as Koto Endo

Directed by Josh Safdie

Written by Josh Safdie and Ronald Bronstein