Marty Supreme review: Timothée Chalamet is ruthless and shameless in stressful drama
Now that we’ve seen Josh and Benny Safdie’s first solo directorial projects, Marty Supreme and The Smashing Machine, it’s clear to see that Josh was the one driving the intense, stressful vibes in their joint movies Good Time and Uncut Gems, because that’s exactly the type of energy you can expect to see in Marty Supreme.
Loosely inspired by the life of table tennis champ Marty Reisman, Josh Safdie‘s film is set in New York in 1952 and follows Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet) as he tries to raise the funds to participate in ping-pong tournaments around the world. He is gifted at the sport, but he needs money to become one of the greats. At the beginning, he quits his job at a shoe store after illegally procuring the money to fly to London for a championship. After that, he sets his sights on his next tournament in Japan – but he doesn’t want to get a job to earn the money; he prefers to hustle and swindle, use people, exploit their kindness and get mixed up in all sorts of business to raise the cash.
If you’re like me and expected Marty Supreme to be a straightforward sports biopic, then you’re in for a surprise. The comedy-drama is basically Uncut Gems but with table tennis instead of diamonds. There are so many stressful, chaotic moments as Marty really gets himself into many messy situations. I experienced a full-on sensory overload at times, and some moments are so crazy that I had to laugh. I couldn’t help thinking that getting a job would have been much easier than everything he puts himself through – but that would have been a boring movie!
Marty is a big, juicy character for Chalamet and he spent years preparing for the exciting tournament scenes. He fully commits to playing someone so blinded by his singular pursuit that he will basically stop at nothing to achieve it. He’s not very easy to like – he’s an overconfident and narcissistic showboat who treats his loved ones like crap and has no qualms about using them. Marty can talk his way in or out of anything and wears people down by pestering them until they say yes. He is constantly running his mouth and is very boastful, cocky and sometimes even downright offensive; you will be shocked! Despite this, I surprisingly found myself rooting for him in the end, so he must have crept on me.
Chalamet’s performance is very good, but I don’t think it’s any better than his fine turns in Call Me By Your Name and A Complete Unknown. It’s one of his best performances, but not the best. However, I will not be mad if he gets nominated again. It was also a delight seeing Gwyneth Paltrow back onscreen after an acting break. She is wonderful as Kay Stone, a retired actress who sees through Marty’s BS but has an affair with him anyway. More Paltrow please!
Marty Supreme is intense, funny and totally unpredictable, with an excellent cast and script to boot. It’s not a masterpiece or the film of the year (as some have proclaimed), but I had a good time with it.
In cinemas Friday 26th December (Boxing Day)