Timothée Chalamet achieves greatness with Marty Supreme – a fast-paced New York odyssey wrapped in a ping-pong sports film
Earlier this year, Timothée Chalamet ruffled a few feathers when he announced to a room full of his peers at the SAG Awards that he was in “pursuit of greatness.” For some, it was a moment of refreshing honesty: Don’t we all want to do something worthwhile with our time on Earth? Especially if we have the talent to back it up. These words could have come straight from the mouth of Marty Mauser, the self-confident ping-pong champion that Chalamet brings to the screen with electrifying magnetism in Marty Supreme.
In fact, if you’ve been around social media in the past couple of months, you’ve probably already gotten a taste of Mauser’s brazen confidence thanks to Chalamet’s unconventional ad campaign for the film. Typically flanked by several people with “hardcore orange” spheres on their heads and wearing Mauser-esque glasses, Chalamet has touted his “really high-end performances” over the past 7-8 years, specifically declaring Marty Surpeme “high-end shit.”
There’s a fascinating blur here between character and performer because, like Chalamet, Marty Supreme has the ability to back up his self-aggrandizing statements. A flamboyant young star (!) of American ping-pong, Mauser ruffles the feathers of institutions by charging the league for expensive venues, while organizing an unmissable spectacle that attracts crowds. That is, until he loses to a Japanese underdog with a new type of paddle – a damage he hopes to rectify with a rematch.
Back in the game
This brief summary probably makes Marty Surpreme sound more like a sports movie than it actually is. Set in 1950s New York, Ping-Pong ends the film, but the middle section is something else entirely. Much closer to a frenetic ’70s drama, and very much in line with the Safdie brothers’ terribly tense work (although Josh does the solo here, while Benny is off to do The Smashing Machine), it’s a film about a resourceful schemer who’s dealt a bad hand in bending the law to collect what he thinks he’s owed.
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One of Mauser’s strangest sources of money involves a failed attempt to extort a dangerous gangster (played by Bad Lieutenant director Abel Ferrara) for the return of his dog, just 24 hours after Mauser nearly crushes them both when he and the bathtub he’s sitting in fall through the ceiling of a decrepit motel. From the moment Mauser returns to American soil after a humiliating world tour where he performs enjoyable ping-pong tricks in front of a family audience, everything goes wrong, a spiral of disasters that push Mauser further and further from his dreams.
In the midst of all this, Mauser manages to become involved with a faded Hollywood star, Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow, sporting a perfect British accent). Stuck in a dead-end marriage to a pen mogul (played with reptilian menace by Kevin O’Leary), Stone is won over by Mauser’s unassailable confidence as an escape from her husband, even as Mauser’s ironclad self-esteem often tips into arrogance. Outside of MCU and Ryan Murphy projects, Paltrow hasn’t appeared on screen since 2015’s laughable Mortdecai, but in just a few scenes she reminds you why she was one of the most in-demand stars of the ’90s.
Rule the world
Odessa A’zion as Rachel is equally attractive. The Until Dawn star is a constant as Marty’s chaotic love interest, who is looking for a way out of his loveless marriage to Ira (Emory Cohen). They’re a perfect match: Rachel is as intriguing as Marty, and even more determined to find a way out of his desperate situation. In a way, the film is a stealthy love story, even though it opens with a microscopic view of Marty’s sperm swimming to victory, set to a rousing soundtrack of Tears For Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.”
But it’s Timmy’s show, and after almost going all the way with his transformative performance as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown, there’s a good chance Chalamet will be holding a golden bald aloft come mid-March. Chalamet learned to play ping pong to an incredibly convincing level as Mauser, and while that’s far from what the film is about, when Chalamet has a paddle in his hand, Marty Supreme harnesses the thrilling sensations of a Rocky or Rudy.
There is something undeniably invigorating about Marty Supreme. While there’s a certain familiarity to its atmosphere and worldview—more than The Smashing Machine, it’s a continuation of the Safdie Project, including esoteric casting choices, spiraling madness, and plenty of scenes featuring sweaty thugs yelling at each other about money—watching Chalamet dominate the screen is akin to watching a young Pacino. Chalamet is no longer in search of greatness, he is already there.
Marty Supreme hits theaters on December 25. For more on what to watch, check out the rest of our Big Screen Spotlight series.
