‘Marty Supreme’: Timothée Chalamet Dreams Big In This Exhilarating Nightmare Odyssey

Likely to be the most exciting film that’ll ever be made about a table tennis player, Marty Supreme is an exhilarating and nightmarish tale about what it takes to be “one of the greats” in this world, no matter the consequences.

Timothée Chalamet absolutely dominates as Marty Mauser in this genuinely divine stroke of filmmaking created by director, co-writer and co-editor Josh Safdie, who reasserts himself as one of our great modern directors with this work.

New York, 1952: Marty Mauser (Chalamet) is a hustler and ping pong player stuck working at his uncle’s shoe store. He’s having a fling with married childhood friend Rachel (Odessa A’zion) and practicing his table tennis game in the hopes of becoming the first American to win the British Open for table tennis.

London is full of high highs and crushing lows for Marty: though he seduces ex-movie star Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow), he brutally loses the final to deaf Japanese player Koto Endo (Koto Kawaguchi). Embarrassed by the loss, Marty is dedicated to doing anything to win next time, even if it means burning everything and everyone around him to do it.

Much like Good Time’s Connie and Uncut Gems’ Howard, Marty Mauser is another entry in the Safdie character catalogue of all-American dirtbags. Marty’s talent for table tennis is apparent, as shown in an early scene where Josh Safdie and cinematographer Darious Khondji shoot his early tournament run with a youthful electricity.

But Marty’s greatest flaw, as penned by Safdie and co-writer Ronald Bronstein, is not just that he desires greatness: he believes he’s entitled to it. It’s that sense of entitlement that sees Marty Supreme transform from a standard sports flick with an incredible sense of craft in its first 30 minutes into a different beast altogether that thoroughly dismantles Marty’s mindset with absolutely electric filmmaking.

Marty Supreme transforms from sports biopic to nightmare odyssey

Transforming right under your nose, the film effortlessly pivots to becoming an After Hours-esque romp through a strongly characterised mid-20th century New York that’s powered by 80s sounds that propel Marty into the clutches of a variety of colourful characters that he tries to swindle on the path to his ultimate victory.

That post-modern propulsiveness is the secret sauce of Marty Supreme, used to add even more flavour to the main course: a truly indelible performance by Timothée Chalamet. Despite his impressive streak of recent films, this is still Chalamet’s greatest work yet: his portrayal of this delusionally determined, endlessly slimy hustler is some of the best he’s ever done. Despite a seemingly endless supply of ego and poor decision-making, Marty Mauser is infinitely endearing to watch in his hands.

Chalamet may lead the film, but he’s not always in sole control of it thanks to a sensational supporting cast. Marty Supreme’s suite of established actors are fantastic, with a particularly effervescent Odessa A’zion as Marty’s fling Rachel, Gwyneth Paltrow’s sultry Kay, and a terrifying Abel Ferrara as gangster Ezra Mishkin being real highlights.

Tyler, the Creator also makes a genuinely wonderful appearance as Marty’s hustling partner Wally, and even Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary shines as Milton Rockwell… probably because his role of “ruthless business mogul” isn’t one he really has to act for.

Marty Supreme asks… what’s the price of glory?

These are all people that, in some capacity, Marty will burn on the way to his chance to face off against Endo again. Yet despite his audaciousness and propensity to screw over those around him, Marty has much more to him than just a self-destructive man in search of victory.

Many of Marty Supreme’s musings come from Marty as a character: Safdie and Bronstein are also interested in navigating the anxieties of navigating modern Judaism and investigating exactly what it means to try leave your mark on history, especially as you’re still young.

These themes are conveyed effortlessly through the electric storytelling of Marty Supreme, where Josh Safdie demonstrates an impressive level of control over tension, anxiety, and comedy that surpasses his genuinely exceptional previous work.

But where Uncut Gems and Good Time start in the depths of depravity, it’s even more nail-biting to watch Marty put himself in danger simply because of how avoidable it all is. Is it possible to understand such reckless abandon when potential greatness is on the line?

You’ll have to decide for yourself when you see Marty Supreme, a truly sensational film about the peaks and valleys of chasing glory. Featuring a knockout performance from Timothée Chalamet and truly exceptional filmmaking from Josh Safdie and co., it’s one of the very finest movies of the 2020s thus far. And I suspect that fittingly (or perhaps ironically), Marty Supreme is one for the history books.

★★★★★

Marty Supreme is in cinemas now.