Beyond his cinematic personas, Timothée Chalamet is a veritable performance artist, particularly when promoting a film. For Marty Supreme, in which he portrays an aspiring ping-pong champion in 1952, he has already dazzled us with a self-important video spoof of a marketing meeting for the film, and appeared at a pop-up store selling Marty Supreme merchandise accompanied by men with giant orange ping-pong balls covering their heads. These real-life Timmy scenarios can be hilariously meta or infuriating, but with Chalamet's engaging performance as Marty Mauser, you can set his off-screen antics aside. While his portrayal of Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown last year was better than the film itself, Marty Supreme is as fresh, funny, and exhilarating to watch as its hero. It's worth being bombarded by merchandise and giant orange heads.
The film is full of unexpected turns. It appears to be a sports film, but it's actually about the screw-up that Marty is. He works in his uncle's shoe shop on the Lower East Side of New York, but will let nothing stand in his way as he strives to compete in international table tennis. He scams, lies, and steals from everyone, including those closest to him, to get to ping-pong tournaments. And he's not some clichéd loveable scamp; he's an arrogant, entitled guy. He's not movie-star glamorous; he's a scrawny young man with a pencil mustache and blotchy skin. Most surprisingly of all, Chalamet's on-screen charm, the character's bravado, and the film's wit are captivating even when Marty's behavior is at its worst.
The director, Josh Safdie, also wrote the screenplay with his longtime collaborator Ronald Bronstein, loosely basing it on the story of a real-life table tennis champion, Marty Reisman. Safdie is best known for gritty films like Uncut Gems (2019), directed with his brother, Benny. If Uncut Gems were a madcap comedy instead of a drama about sleazy characters, it might be Marty Supreme. They share a kinetic energy and textured world. Here Safdie immerses us in Marty's working-class street of small storefronts, tenement buildings that need painting, and neighbors who know each other's business.
Marty is from that world, but his ambition sets him apart. When he says, "I'm not drinking caffeine," it's a wise choice for someone who is already hyperactive, moving and talking superfast. In the back room of the shoe store, he has quick sex with his friend Rachel, who happens to be married to someone else. Odessa A'zion is vivid and amusing in the role, especially when Rachel turns out to be as much of a schemer as Marty, their perfect match.
Soon after that encounter, Marty points a gun at a co-worker who is closing his uncle's safe – a scene played for laughs because even the victim knows he is a con man, not a killer – and takes some money he insists is owed him. He runs off to a tournament in the UK and talks his way into a five-star hotel, where Kay Stone, a former film star impeccably played by Gwyneth Paltrow, swans by with the look and elegance of Grace Kelly. Marty cold-calls her to meet. With a glint in her eye, Paltrow lets us see that Kay isn't duped but she is intrigued.
It says a lot about Safdie's gift for working with actors that some unusual casting choices fit in seamlessly with Chalamet and Paltrow. Kevin O'Leary
