In the electric new drama Marty Supreme, Timothée Chalamet delivers what is being hailed as a career-best performance, solidifying his status as one of the most compelling actors of his generation. Directed by Josh Safdie, the film is a fictional portrait of a relentlessly ambitious midcentury table tennis player, loosely inspired by the real-life New York character Marty Reisman.
A Powder-Keg Performance
Chalamet stars as Marty Mauser, a working-class Jewish kid in the postwar era described as "Hitler's nightmare." Set in 1952, the story follows his desperate hunt for cash and glory, with international competitions in London and Tokyo offering a path to success he cannot afford. Like Safdie's previous work, such as Uncut Gems, the film is fuelled by a relentless, powder-keg tension, though it unfolds with a slightly less claustrophobic pace.
Marty is an underdog, but not a traditionally likeable one. He treats people as tools, makes crass and volatile statements, and watches his own reflection while kissing a married movie star, Kay Stone, played with delicious smirk by Gwyneth Paltrow. Yet, Chalamet's performance, with its hungry physicality and machine-gun delivery, renders him utterly magnetic, drawing comparisons to the early, incendiary work of Al Pacino.
A New Hollywood Habitat
Josh Safdie's mission extends beyond mere tension. He constructs a perfectly realised New Hollywood environment for his star to inhabit. Cinematographer Darius Khondji shoots on warm, grainy 35mm film, while Safdie populates the world with a gallery of distinctive faces rarely seen in modern cinema. The supporting cast includes cameos from director Abel Ferrara, magician Penn Jillette, and high-wire artist Philippe Petit.
The film's sonic landscape is a deliberate anachronism. Daniel Lopatin's electronic score pulses with an Eighties flavour, suggesting Marty is running so fast into the future he's already there. His few allies, like Wally (played by musician Tyler, the Creator), know they are being used, yet find themselves unable to refuse his demands. Chalamet finds moments of startling sincerity amidst the chaos, slowing his breakneck speech to connect, revealing the fragile human beneath the ambition.
The Human Cost of Ambition
We root for Marty less for his table tennis prowess—though Safdie films the matches with striking intimacy—and more because we want to see him triumph over the entitled elite, represented by Kay's pen magnate husband, Milton Rockwell (Kevin O'Leary). His ambition is both admirable and a sickness, infecting everyone around him with desperate schemes.
Ultimately, Marty Supreme is a film about the crushing weight of capitalism and the human need to prove oneself. In a wonderful coda, Chalamet and Safdie allow Marty, after all the frenzy, to become a person again. They let him cry. It's a powerful conclusion to a film that confirms both its director and its star operating at the peak of their powers.
Marty Supreme, also starring Odessa A'zion and Fran Drescher, has a runtime of 149 minutes and arrives in cinemas across the UK on 26 December.
