Josh Safdie’s latest film “Marty Supreme” released in theaters nationwide Christmas day. Credit: A24 via TNS
Josh Safdie’s latest film, “Marty Supreme” is quite the wild ride.
Much like its massive marketing budget, the film is pursuing greatness — something it seamlessly achieves.
The highly anticipated film released Christmas Day in theaters nationwide. The day after Christmas, at the Marcus Crosswoods Cinema in Columbus, a packed house of film fanatics sat in recliners at Screen 13, anxiously waiting to see what all the fuss was about.
Set in 1950s New York, Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet) is a shoe salesman with a promising career in the industry, working for his uncle’s shoe shop. Mauser couldn’t care less about footwear, however; instead, he puts his life on the line to become a table tennis champion.
It’s a tense, high-stakes two-and-a-half-hour sports comedy full of chaos that ensues as a young man chases his big dream relentlessly, progressively becoming more and more desperate to achieve it.
Chalamet, known for dedicating himself to his roles in hopes of becoming “one of the greats” — as stated in his awards speech at the SAG Awards in February, where he became the youngest Best Actor winner for his role as Bob Dylan in the 2024 biopic “A Complete Unknown” — delivers yet again in this role.
While Mauser is insufferable and his actions are infuriating throughout most of the film, Chalamet brings a considerable amount of charm to the arrogant 23-year-old athlete. His line delivery was well-paced and entertaining, with personality shining through his character in a way only Chalamet could.
Throughout the film, Mauser juggles his pregnant girlfriend Rachel (Odessa A’zion) — who has an abusive husband — with retired, also married actress Kay Stone (Gwenyth Paltrow), maintaining confusing and rocky relationships that Mauser destroys then promptly rebuilds when he needs something. We see this reflected in his familial relationships as well, especially with his mother and uncle — he is a selfish, selfish man, but people can’t seem to get away from his grasp.
He’s hungry for the World Cup trophy and to become the No. 1 table tennis player in the world. A dream that he seems to have in the bag, until he is met with Koto Endo (Koto Kawaguchi), Japan’s star player, who is equipped with a unique paddle and a skillset Mauser is unfamiliar with. Mauser’s journey to the championship begins with Endo, and it ends with him, too.
For anyone with reservations about seeing the film, especially those who dislike sports, it’s still worth a watch.
It brings that on-the-edge feeling Luca Guadagnino’s 2024 film “Challengers” evokes, with nail biting moments where you find yourself locked in on the ball’s every move, following as it shoots back and forth between paddles. But even with these similarities, the films are incomparable — sure, both are about professional athletes pushing themselves to be better and cheating on their partners in the meantime, but “Marty Supreme” is on a whole other level.
A large portion of the movie is about the game, but Safdie’s film also goes beyond the bounds of the ping-pong table. Multiply the drama in “Challengers” by 10 and you’ll have “Marty Supreme.” As a huge fan of the former, that takes a lot to say.
What this movie does best is in its pacing. In its first half, it seems like any other sports film. Mauser excels in competitive matches and aims to launch his own line of ping pong balls, painted bright orange to stand out against a classy white outfit, making it easier to see the moving balls in game, with his friend and associate, Christopher.
It continues to explore Mauser’s relationship with his girlfriend Rachel and her abusive husband while introducing new characters, such as Mauser’s friend Wally (Tyler Okonma), a cab driver and fellow ping-pong hustler who helps Mauser with his crazy plans to get to the World Cup.
Okonma — better known as Tyler, the Creator, a two-time Grammy award-winning rapper and musician — makes his acting debut in this film, and he absolutely kills it. The strong chemistry between Okonma and Chalamet reflects in the chemistry of their characters as well, which makes for an incredibly likeable duo, despite their less-than-ideal actions.
Kevin O’Leary, the Canadian investor best known for the business reality TV series “Shark Tank,” appears in this film as Milton Rockwell, a businessman who runs a pen empire and the husband of Mauser’s affair partner, Stone. Rockwell serves as an important contact for Mauser, a powerful and ruthless man who has the power to launch Mauser’s career, but only if Mauser compromises his own dignity.
Rockwell is parallel to that of the entrepreneur in real life, with O’Leary saying in a TMZ Live interview that Safdie and writer Ronald Bronstein came to him looking for a “real a–hole” to play the part. After having him read the script, they decided that O’Leary was the perfect fit, and he most certainly was.
Immediately after leaving the theater, my one quarrel with the film was the amount of things the film brought up, but never revisited. But after reflection, it makes perfect sense as to why these ideas never returned to screen.
Mauser had many, many ambitions; he planned different routes to success, ways he would capitalize off his winnings and make a name for himself in the history books. But because he focused so heavily on winning — the catalyst for change in his life — these other plans took the back burner as he pursued what he felt he needed to achieve first.
The ending is indescribable. It is comparable to that of Chalamet’s performance at the end of “Call Me By Your Name,” a performance that landed him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor, and I see no reason as to why he isn’t worthy of another nomination for “Marty Supreme.”
There are so many things happening in this film that it’s hard to cohesively explain the plot, the character relationships, the deeper meaning. It’s a whirlwind of comedy and ambition, fear and courage, anger and determination. There are so many things, all packed into one unforgettable film. Something that in my eyes, achieves the greatness Mauser — and Chalamet — only dreamed of.
Rating: 5/5
