Josh Safdie's latest cinematic offering, 'Marty Supreme', delivers a relentless, 149-minute spectacle that feels like a single-player ping-pong rally run at breakneck speed. This gonzo calamity of a film, starring Timothée Chalamet and featuring a smart return by Gwyneth Paltrow, is a sociopath-screwball nightmare packed with detonations of bad taste, frantic energy, and a surprising amount of heart.
A Hustler's Chaotic Journey
Chalamet embodies Marty Mauser, a spindly, motormouth Jewish shoe-shop worker in 1952 New York, whose dreams of table tennis glory are as oversized as his ego. Loosely inspired by real-life hustler Marty 'The Needle' Reisman, Chalamet's Marty is a whirlwind of ambition, patenting his own 'Marty Supreme' ball and saving to travel to the table tennis championships at Wembley in Britain. The film's plot is a farcical race against time, following Marty's affair with a married childhood sweetheart, his disastrous face-off with Japan's ping-pong star Koto Endo, and an erotic obsession with retired movie star Kay Stone, played with captivating style by Gwyneth Paltrow.
More Than a Sports Movie
While ping-pong provides the backdrop, Marty Supreme defiantly refuses to behave like a conventional sports film. There are no training montages or wise mentors. Instead, the film itself becomes a game of ping-pong, with every scene crackling with the clattering, dizzying rhythm of a rapid volley. The comic absurdity lies in realising the sport is merely a canvas for Marty's 'thrumming narcissism', desperate hustles, and a supercharged neediness that threatens to throw away everything important in his life.
The film is packed with gasp-inducing set pieces and alpha cameos, including a scene with cult director Abel Ferrara. It doesn't shy from controversy, with Marty shocking British journalists with crass jokes and facing blatant bigotry from a potential sponsor. Through the nonstop 'hellzapoppin' meltdown, Chalamet hilariously portrays a live-wire of indignation and self-pity, while Paltrow provides a witty, sensual counterweight as the one person who truly sees him.
A Poignant Finale Amidst the Chaos
By the film's climax, which includes one of the most upsetting displays of corporal punishment in recent memory, the audience is as disorientated as Marty. Yet, amidst the pure craziness and catastrophic stunts, our pint-sized hero achieves a poignant kind of maturity in the final shot. It's a testament to Safdie's vision and Chalamet's committed performance that such a reprehensible character can somehow earn a sliver of redemption.
Marty Supreme is a spectacular, exhausting, and utterly unique cinematic experience. It's a film that will leave your head spinning, but undoubtedly marks a smash hit for Timothée Chalamet. The film is released on 26 December in the UK, following its US debut on 25 December, and arrives in Australia on 22 January.
