"Marty Supreme" is very much in the vein of the other Safdie films - a tense, chaotic portrait of a terrible man who just can't seem to stop himself from making bad choices. In this case, we have Marty Mauser (Timothee Chalamet), a table tennis/ping-pong champion loosely based on a real figure from the 1950s.
When we first meet Marty, he's working as a shoe salesman in New York for his uncle (Ratso Sloman), trying to secure funds to go compete in a London table tennis tournament, and having an affair with his married childhood friend Rachel (Odessa A'zion). He ends up robbing the shoe store to pay for his plane ticket, and his behavior just gets more reprehensible from there. Most of the film follows Marty eight months later, when he's in the same position trying to get money to go another tournament in Japan, only his personal life has gotten much more complicated, and he's burned a lot more of his bridges. Marty is only too willing to send the rest of his life up in flames in the dogged pursuit of his dreams.
Despite being played by the charming and talented Timothy Chalamet, it's never in doubt that Marty Mauser is a downright horrendous human being. The movie often seems to be daring us to root for him. His main rivals in table tennis are the far more humble Bela Kletski (Geza Rohrig) and Koto Endo (Koto Kawaguchi), who have more sympathetic histories. Marty's endless quest for more money means he takes advantage of everyone he comes into contact with. He regularly betrays his friends like black taxi driver Wally (Tyler Okonma) and potential business partner Dion (Luke Manley). He displays some attachment to his mother (Fran Drescher) and to Rachel, though that doesn't stop him from also aggressively pursuing an aging screen star, Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow), who he meets by chance in London. He ends up running afoul of dangerous characters like mobster Ezra Mishkin (Abel Ferrara) and Kay's husband Milton Rockwell (Kevin O'Leary), and it's entirely his own fault.
The film, chronicling Marty's many adventures in skullduggery and self-destruction, is two and a half hours of occasional sports drama, interwoven with segments of melodrama, suspense, and escalating chaos. Some of the material is very difficult to get through, though if you've seen the Safdies' other films, you know what you're in for. Marty talks his way out of bad situations, creates others, and sometimes has to get more creative or craven in his tactics. Many of the episodes unfold like shaggy dog stories, with wild twists and improbable getaways. Other times, Marty's luck runs out and he has to face humiliation and defeat, though he never knows when to give up. As the film goes on, the stories get wilder and Marty's behavior gets more outrageous and cringeworthy. I've never seen a sports film work so hard to make you root against its protagonist, and it's definitely on purpose.
So, obviously "Marty Supreme" isn't about table tennis as much as it's about poking at the audience's own impulses to elevate or vilify people based on totally arbitrary characteristics and how they happen to be positioned in a narrative. There's also a lot more going on in the margins - post WWII rebuilding, the Jewish immigrant experience, the commercialization and commodification of sports, and of course this is a New York story too. The movie has more in common with "The Brutalist" than other sports movies like "The Smashing Machine." Eventually you realize that "Marty" may be a narcissist and a grifter, but many of the people he interacts with are also various degrees of dishonest, and some of the people he's using are using him right back. Maybe Marty stands for America or the Jewish diaspora. Maybe he's just another wannabe.
I don't see how it's fair that Josh Safidie got both cinematographer Darius Khondji and writer/editor Ronald Bronstein in the Safdie brothers breakup. So I'm definitely not giving all the credit for "Marty Supreme" to Josh. Frankly, I think he was very lucky that Timothee Chalamet decided to get onboard, and committed so hard during the awards season lead-up and promotional campaign, he actually helped make the film a bona fide box office hit. Odessa A'zion also distinguishes herself nicely in a cast chock full of familiar faces and random cameos. See if you can spot David Mamet and Penn Jillette.
Frankly, "Marty Supreme" is too mean to its audience for me to embrace it fully. I will happily respect and admire it from afar, and hope everyone involved enjoys their success.
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