1 of 5 | Timothée Chalamet plays table tennis in “Marty Supreme,” in theaters Dec. 25. Photo courtesy of A24
Marty Supreme, in theaters Dec. 25, is a triggering, abrasive experience. This is by design, however, and director Josh Safdie can claim mission accomplished.
Timothée Chalamet stars as Marty Mauser, a young man who works at a shoe store to fund his table tennis tournament competitions. Marty is a brash trash talker but a gifted and skilled player.
After a defeat and outburst at the 1952 tournament, Marty faces a hefty fine from the table tennis league. Back in New York, he hustles and schemes to try to raise funds to pay off his fine and redeem himself on the world stage.
The film’s very first scene establishes a dynamic in which characters talk over each other, never letting the audience fully hear the dialogue. This is a bad habit people exhibit in real life, but Safdie uses it to create discomfort and never lets up.
Like most hustler movies, Marty’s ruses in local ping pong halls lead to violence, but so do many of his other ploys. Violence erupts suddenly and intensely, showing the dangerous consequences of Marty’s actions.
This is a perceptive theme of the film, which Safdie wrote with Ronald Bronstein. Even if Marty gets what he wants, the lifestyle of constant dishonest hustling is a very anxious state of existence.
Indeed, it is dangerous to even speak freely around Marty because he’s always looking for an angle. As soon as his business partner mentions his brother moved out, Marty is asking to occupy the empty room.
The film repeatedly shows how Marty’s plans do not garner him success, although some viewers are likely to admire his bravado without doing that math. For astute viewers, it just adds to the tension of watching Marty self-destruct.
But, each of Marty’s hustles plant seeds that lead to consequences later. So by the middle of the film, Marty is being attacked on all sides and the audience is right in the middle with him.
Marty also pushes the trash talking athlete well past the realms of Muhammad Ali and the like. He makes controversial Holocaust remarks about Jewish opponents, knowing it will get him ink in the newspapers.
He also adds that it’s okay for him to make such comments because he’s Jewish too. That could be Safdie saying the same, but Safdie’s intentions are different from Marty’s.
Marty is pushing buttons for shock value, while Safdie is having his character do so to challenge the audience with his antihero. Safdie thought of the most abrasive things Marty could say, and Auschwitz references would be hard to top.
Besides, Marty doesn’t limit himself to Jewish controversies. He makes just as alarming remarks about American soldiers in the Japanese front in World War II.
Interestingly, Marty does apologize when he goes too far with people, such as the two women with whom he is having an affair, Rachel (Odessa A’Zion) and actor Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow). It’s more an act of self-preservation than humility, though, because he sees he’s losing them.
The tournament loss doesn’t even humble Marty. He just doubles down on bravado and spirals further and further. It’s like Marty is chopping the head off a hydra and three more grow back, but those situations are well-connected to show how everything he incurs is related.
Safdie also scores his ’50s period pieces with an ’80s rock soundtrack, creating another level of disharmony. The period details are sound though, with Marty traversing New York and international streets filled with extras dressed in era-appropriate attire.
The ping pong scenes are intense. Opponents will serve the ball so low to the table that Marty can only return it too wide to score a point.
Players will run all over the court volleying. It’s easy to see how those matches become sweaty, heavingly breathless exertions.
Marty also has fun with his friendlier opponents, doing trick shots behind their backs, off their feet and blowing the ball.
Marty Supreme is the third film of the year to create this kind of cacophonous discomfort, but the only one to do so for a selfish character. Both If I Had Legs I’d Kick You and Die My Love put the viewer inside their heroines’ stress, but those films feature sympathetic characters who haven’t done anything to bring their situations upon themselves.
Some viewers would rule out going on that journey even with relatable heroes, so Marty himself presents another barrier. Even the 2017 film mother!, also starring Die My Love’s Jennifer Lawrence, presents her as sympathetic, surrounded by hordes of takers but Marty Supreme may be from the horde’s point of view.
Based on their respective debut solo films, it would appear Bennie Safdie was the calming force of the Safdie brothers, as Marty Supreme has no such refuge. Anyone who’s seen Good Time, Uncut Gems or Bennie’s solo, The Smashing Machine, knows those are not calm movies either, but Marty Supreme is unmitigated.
Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.
Timothée Chalamet turns 29: a look back
Timothee Chalamet arrives at the premiere of “Call Me By Your Name” on opening night of the Toronto International Film Festival in Canada on September 7, 2017. The award-winning romantic drama is based on the Andre Aciman novel of the same name. Photo by Christine Chew/UPI | License Photo
