Marty Supreme

I think Timothee Chalamet might be my favorite living actor. Is that dorky to say? (My favorite dead actor, for what it's worth, is Philip Seymour Hoffman). There's something dorky about Chalamet--he's a skinny white dude dating a Kardashian. But goddamn, can he act. When I saw him in Call Me By Your Name, I left the theatre thinking that his performance as Elio Perlman was not only great, but was one of the greatest performances in any film I've seen. His ability to portray youthful arrogance and playfulness, mixed with shyness and lust and vulnerability was astounding to me. I think my jaw was actually hanging open after that last final shot of the movie. 

Josh Safdie's Marty Supreme is a fantastic movie. It's outrageous and funny and anxiety-provoking (but in a fun way, at least in my opinion). And at its center is Chalamet's performance as the singular character of Marty Mauser. Marty (based loosely on Marty Reisman) is a hustler. He is always thinking of a way to make a buck (or make a fuck, considering we watch him fuck a married woman into pregnancy against a shelf of shoe boxes in the opening minutes of the film). But his true passion is table tennis and everything he does revolves around the belief that he is and will be known as the world's greatest table tennis player.

Going into this film, I thought it would mostly be about Marty playing ping pong. But the bulk of the film is actually about Marty trying to make (or steal) money he doesn't have so that he can travel to play ping pong. Don't worry--there are multiple scenes of tense, high stakes table tennis games. But most of the movie is focused on Marty's epic quest to first raise money to attend the British Open for table tennis and then raise money to attend the World Championship of table tennis in Tokyo. But his own arrogance, poor impulse control, and general shenanigans keep getting in the way of his plans. Does he blame everyone else for his own mistakes? You betcha.

Chalamet absolutely sells this character. He's the kind of guy who, when speaking about his older, Jewish opponent in the British Open, tells a reporter, "I'm going to do to Kletzki what Auschwitz couldn't", waiting a beat before saying, "I can say that. I'm Jewish. In fact, I'm Hitler's worst nightmare." The cojones on this little twerp! You really do want to hate him and you have every reason to do so. He's foul-mouthed, rude, a liar, a swindler...but you can't help but root for the sonofabitch. And I think the secret sauce here is that Marty has genuine passion for table tennis. Marty's focus on money throughout the film isn't because he's obsessed with nice things (although he does believe that he deserves nice things), but because he sees money as a means to an end--his goal of getting to Tokyo to win the World Championship. 

Spoilers....

In the climatic scene of the film, Marty purposefully throws a match against Koto Endo (Koto Kawaguchi, the stoic and dignified foil to Marty) as part of a paid publicity stunt. He has just gotten the news that he was banned from the World Championship due to previous shenanigans at the British Open. Even though he made it all the way to Tokyo, enduring danger and humiliation to get there, he won't be achieving his dream of becoming the World Champion at table tennis.

He begs Endo to play a "real" game of ping pong against him. He rallies the crowd to chant their desire to not watch a sham match, but a real one. Endo agrees and Marty beats him by the thinnest margin. When he wins, Marty sobs and hugs Endo, thanking him for the game. This wasn't about money or even about showing off to a stadium full of people (people who are upset because their country's finest player just lost to this American weirdo)...it was about Marty proving something to himself. 

Any other movie would be about Endo, the deaf Japanese man who lost his hearing in WWII, beating the arrogant American pig. But this movie is about Marty--Marty Supreme--coming out on top. It's borderline tasteless, especially right now, given our own resident arrogant American pig at 1600 Pennsylvania. But I'll be damned if I wasn't smiling like a loon when Marty wins the game. Maybe I have a little of that arrogant, piggish American blood in me. Or maybe that's just the power of the film and of Chalamet's performance. 

/spoilers

Marty Supreme is a film that may not work for some people. Some won't see past Marty's annoying traits, especially when he drags his pregnant lover, Rachel, into his bullshit (Odessa A'zion is great, although you want to shake her and tell her to get away from this guy). Some will find the movie too anxiety-inducing to enjoy. But I really like morally grey characters, as long as they're interesting. And Marty is very, very interesting.

Taking a cue from his character, Timothee Chalamet has been hustling his ass off (an ass we get to see during a particularly funny scene in the movie) to promote Marty Supreme and it seems that the hard work has paid off, as the film has been very successful at the box office. I'm so pleased that an indie film about table tennis is drawing such big crowds. It's just such a cool, energetic, funny film and I'm glad I saw it before making my "Best of 2025" list because it will definitely have a place near the top. 

Grade: A