Marty Supreme Review

Directed By: Josh Safdie
Written By: Josh Safdie
Runtime: 149 minutes minutes
MPA Rating: Rated R for language throughout, sexual content, some violent content/bloody images and nudity.

Timothée Chalamet – Marty Mauser
Odessa A’zion – Rachel Mizler
Gwyneth Paltrow – Kay Stone
Kevin O’Leary – Milton Rockwell
Luke Manley – Dion Galanis
Tyler the Creator – Wally
Géza Röhrig – Bela Kletzki
Larry Sloman – Murray Norkin
Koto Kawaguchi – Koto Endo
Fran Drescher – Rebecca Mauser
Sandra Bernhard – Judy
Abel Ferrara – Ezra Mishkin
Emory Cohen – Ira Mizler

It’s time for an award season review. Uncut Gems and Good Time filmmaker, Josh Safdie, delivers his first solo directorial effort in Marty Supreme, a chaotic, and somewhat comedic period drama exploring the plight of its pragmatic protagonist, Mary Mauser (Chalamet), the eponymous Marty of Marty Supreme. A good alternative title might have been The Consequences of My Actions: The Movie, as Marty builds a cavalcade of personal transgressions against everyone around him, all in service of fulfilling his dream of becoming the world’s greatest table tennis player.

Chalamet delivers a dynamite, layered, and nuanced performance as the fast-talking, often unscrupulous Marty Mauser. Marty’s an incredibly flawed protagonist. He’s narcissistic, egotistical, a womanizer, and neglectful of his friends as he trains diligently for the British Open in table tennis, hoping to gain fame and fortune.

Marty does not care if his personal relationships suffer in pursuit of that goal, and his sense of entitlement causes him to flippantly manipulate his way into a gorgeous hotel suite during a tournament. He even manages to charm his way into the good graces of the married former silver screen star, Kay Stone (Paltrow), impressing her enough to persuade her into a romantic rendezvous in said suite.

Despite Marty’s clear skill and passion for the sport, he’s outplayed in the final round by the top table tennis Japanese champion, Koto Endo (Kawaguchi), dashing Marty’s hopes of ascending to the world championship. Eight months and a tour with the Harlem Globetrotters later, Marty returns home to New York a defeated man, yet undeterred in his dream of returning to the table tennis world championship. Unfortunately, Marty’s various misdeeds and mistakes come back to haunt him as he attempts to finagle and hustle his way to a rematch with his epic rival, Endo.

Marty’s flaws as a protagonist are many. He’s a downright scoundrel; and yet, through Chalamet’s exceptional performance and Safdie’s clever script, they manage to ground and balance the character by skillfully portraying his persistence in pursuit of his dream of ascending in the world of table tennis.

Marty constantly lies and fakes his way through life. He exploits his friends and causes chaos wherever he goes, especially with his childhood friend and neighbor, Rachel (A’zion), with whom Marty engages in an affair before his trip to the British Open. He returns eight months later, with Rachel visibly pregnant and near her due date. Marty refuses to acknowledge the child as his own, even though the answer is obvious.

Despite Marty’s unlikable qualities, Chalamet manages to make Marty’s dream and belief in himself genuine and believable. He imbues the character with an authentic relatability that miraculously makes him something of an underdog. Despite Marty’s many flaws, the idea that one makes sacrifices in their lives or even pushes others away in the pursuit of a dream, even an unrealistic one, is incredibly compelling. Marty is like the 1950s Jewish New Yorker kid version of Odysseus from Homer’s The Odyssey.

Safdie crafts a fascinating kind of odyssey for Marty, one that takes him on a journey of introspection and, hopefully, maturation. The movie’s final act delivers a somewhat traditional, yet satisfying, sports-movie finale, despite all the irreverent events that lead up to it. However, Safdie still leaves a satisfying amount of ambiguity on the table.

Safdie ratchets up the tension in an interesting manner, as relatively innocuous and even joyful events become downright insane in the blink of an eye, and further spiral out of control in shocking fashion. It’s a comedic level of outrageous absurdity.

Of the movie’s drawbacks, Marty Supreme runs rather long at just under two and a half hours. It’s a hefty movie in which the subplots sometimes grow long and unwieldy, such as Marty’s affair with Kay Stone. That said, Paltrow delivers a strong performance as a movie star trying to regain a spark of her past big-screen stardom onstage. Some scenes could have been easily trimmed, without losing much of the tension, especially when it shifts perspective away from Marty.

Marty Supreme looks authentic to the period of its early 1950s setting, but Safdie frequently throws more modern songs and 1980s pop ballads into the soundtrack. Safdie’s reasoning for including these needle drops is understandable, but they disrupt the story’s fairly strong immersion and style and detract from the overall experience.
Not to mention, the ’80s pop ballads used as needle drops are already incessantly overused in movies, so the inclusion of Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” and Alphaville’s “Forever Young” proves more groan-inducing than anything else, creating an intrusive feeling during those sequences.

Nevertheless, Marty Supreme provides a fun and compelling journey of self-discovery for a young man who risks everything to fulfill his dreams, and hopefully, finds some measure of peace and introspection in the process.

Where To Watch Marty Supreme

Marty Supreme is still playing in theaters. Showtime details are available at the movie’s website. It’s also available to buy or rent on Apple TV and Prime Video.

8.0

The final score: review Very Good

The 411

Director Josh Safdie crafts a fine film with Marty Supreme, anchored by an exceptional performance by Timothée Chalamet in the lead role of Marty Mauser. They find a shockingly relatable, compelling core to Marty in his belief in himself and his dreams of greatness from table tennis, even at the cost and destruction of his personal relationships. Marty navigates the pitfalls in his life that he unwittingly creates himself, and it becomes an increasingly chaotic, cathartic, and sometimes comedic journey of introspection and self-discovery. The plot grows too long and incessant for its own good, at times, and the use of 1980s pop ballads breaks away from the authentic immersion of the 1950s setting, but it's a strong solo effort for Safdie.