Early in Josh Safdie’s invigorating Marty Supreme, self-perceived table tennis wunderkind Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet) jokes to reporters that he is going to do to his opponent what Adolph Hitler did to the Jews. He then reassures the stunned journalists that, as a Jewish man himself, he is allowed to make such boisterous remarks because he is the embodiment of the vile leader’s worst nightmare; a man who ultimately succeeded despite the Nazi’s best attempts to keep his people down.
The braggadocio confidence Marty displays feels less like a triumph of heritage and more like a byproduct of the American dream. A belief that one’s manifested visions of success are ripe for the picking. One just needs to be willing to do whatever it takes to snatch it.
One thing that is clear in Safdie’s film is that Marty, if nothing else, is a taker.
Safdie first introduces the audience to Marty when he is living in New York and working at his uncle’s shoe store. Despite his claims of being able to sell shoes to an amputee, the smooth-talking man refuses to accept a managerial role at the shop. He views his time there as temporary, a simple means to make the $700 needed to cover his flight to attend the British Open of table tennis.
Confident that only he can defeat the defending champion, Marty is determined to let nothing distract him from making it to London. This includes ignoring both the latest health issues his manipulative mother (Fran Drescher) pretends to have; and the claims that he might be the father of Rachel’s (Odessa A’zion), a married long-time friend who he has been having an affair with, unborn child.
Unfortunately, not everyone shares the young man’s vision. When his uncle refuses to give him the money he is owed, Marty takes it upon himself to steal the cash and heads off to the UK. The film takes place in the 1950s when the aftermath of the World War II are still being felt, and it is in London that Marty discovers that the Japanese have unexpectedly sent a team to compete. Their silent star player Koto Endo (Koto Kawaguchi), who uses a paddle no one has ever seen before, might be his biggest threat in the competition.
Living the high life abroad while at the tournament, including staying at a fancy hotel and ordering food he can’t afford, Marty spots and immediately begins pursuing Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow), a former big screen star who is mounting a comeback in a play. Playing with fire in more ways than one, the athlete and actress strike up an affair despite the fact that Stone is married to a ruthless businessman Milton Rockwell (Kevin O’Leary). An opportunist just like Marty, Rockwell sees a chance to capitalize on the growing Endo hype after the events of the British Open.
It turns out that the ensuing World Table Tennis Championships are set to take place in Tokyo, so Rockwell proposes staging a rigged exhibition match with Marty and Endo a week earlier. The plan is for the former to take a dive, as a way of promoting his pen company in the Japanese market. Initially rejecting Rockwell’s offer for the sake of his integrity, Marty begins to have second thoughts. After a stint touring the world with the Harlem Globetrotters as their halftime act, he returns to New York to discover that the problems he left behind refuse to be swept under the rug.
Still fuming over the stolen money, his uncle takes all the earnings Marty’s made overseas and attempts to use his police connections to pressure him to give up his table tennis dreams for good. Desperate to make the quick cash that will get him to Japan, Marty embarks on a series of ill-fated schemes, including enlisting the help of his taxi driver pal Wally (Tyler Okonma aka Tyler the Creator) to hustle unsuspecting ping pong marks at a bowling alley, which only digs him into a deeper hole. Like a tornado leaving a wake of destruction in its path, Marty’s quest to achieve greatness pulls everyone around him into his volatile vortex.
What makes Safdie’s observations of his protagonist—loosely based on American table tennis player Marty Reisman—so invigorating is the speed at which things go from bad to worse. Exploring the toxic side of American entitlement, Marty is like a virus that cannot help but infect even those he seemingly cares about. He is the type of person who acts as if he is the most important person in the room, even when he is broke and avoiding his various responsibilities.
The way Marty continues to bet on himself hitting it big, at the expense of everyone else, is very reminiscent of the actions of gambling addict Howard Ratner in Safdie’s previous film Uncut Gems, which he co-directed with his brother Benny. While Marty Supreme is Safdie’s first solo effort, it carries several of the same themes as Gems, thanks to a script co-written by longtime collaborator Ronald Bronstein. Despite touching on some of those familiar beats, Safdie manages to make the film feel unique and exhilarating. As Marty jumps from one figurative landmine to the next, the script keeps viewers on the edge of their seats, unsure which one will blow next.
Shifting between nail-biting tension and dark humour, Marty Supreme moves at breakneck speed, rarely giving viewers a chance to breathe. Safdie manages to keep the high level of tension, thanks in part to Chalamet’s career-defining performance. Bringing out both the character’s big-hearted ambitions and his reckless man-child persona, the talented actor ensures Marty remains a self-absorbed villain that audiences both want to root for and slap. Chalamet is so electrifying in this that he further elevates an already firing-on-all-cylinders ensemble cast.
Although it is somewhat jarring to see O’Leary playing a heightened version of himself, especially given all the recent controversy surrounding the businessman and television star, it never overshadows the film’s overall impact. Turning the sports genre on its head, Marty Supreme is a thrilling exploration of American ambition and exceptionalism. A work where achieving fame, even if it is just for a brief moment, is viewed as the pinnacle of success and power. The fact that Safdie’s film ends with Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” the ultimate needle drop, punctuates this fact perfectly.
Easily one of the best films of the year, Safdie constructs a gift that keeps on giving. A work that touches on everything from ping pong subculture to Holocaust survival stories to dog-loving killers without ever feeling overstuffed. Marty Supreme is an energetic opus that is continually surprising and relentless in the best possible way.
Marty Supreme opens in theatres on December 25.
