Creating a character drama about someone who has no redeeming qualities and making it engaging by showing all his unlikable traits feels like a cinematic challenge. Marty Supreme from Josh Safdie feels engaging primarily because it never asks the audience to root for this guy. It is not trying to justify his insensitive and self-obsessed behaviour as an outcome of any trauma. By throwing practical to seemingly crazy hurdles into the life of an unempathetic, narcissistic guy, Josh Safdie creates an entertaining portrait of a flawed character, and Timothee Chalamet delivers a career-defining performance and makes it even more glorious.
The story is set in the ’50s, and Table Tennis is not a popular or appreciated sport in the USA. Our main man, Marty Mauser, is someone who is good at this game, and he is trying to make money so that he can go to tournaments abroad. From working for his scrooge uncle to seducing a movie actress, Marty does almost every unthinkable thing for his obsessive dream. What we see here is the roller coaster ride he goes through because of his impulsive choices.
The narrative of the movie is extremely fast-paced, and from the word go, we are jumping from one event to another, and the motive that takes the story forward is Marty’s obsessive love for Table Tennis. While you are watching it, the way these subplots pop up in the movie would make you wonder what kind of structure they are trying to set up for the drama in this movie. However, as the story progresses, we realize that the purpose of every subplot here is to show us the shameless level of narcissism of the main character. While as an audience we can see so many moral conflicts, the only conflict that was visible to Marty was when he had to choose between winning the match and getting an opportunity to play in a tournament.
The pacing Josh Safdie and Ronald Bronstein set for this movie is spot on. The age of Timothee, the visual texture, and the dynamic frames at times reminded me of the peppy rhythm of something like Catch Me If You Can. The visual authenticity, in terms of how the cinematography captures that era and the production design recreates that time, makes it subconsciously an exploration of those times. The beauty of the screenplay is that it is playing with multiple tracks of various natures, and it manages to intertwine all that and deliver a story that dissects the central character. The table tennis moments in the movie are captured with unbelievable authenticity. If the performers really did that, kudos to them. If most of it was done using visual effects, well, I would say that’s how you do your job in the most invisible way possible.
While the lack of an obvious conflict and resolution may make a section of the audience hesitate in telling a verdict on the movie, I can confidently say that there won’t be much debate about how Timothee Chalamet performed as Marty. The speed of the narrative is equivalent to the relentless energy of the character, and Chalamet plays this self-obsessed character who prioritizes his desire to be a champion player over everything with great conviction. Odessa A’zion, as Marty’s girlfriend, actually gets a character that evolves from being extremely vulnerable to being someone smart, and she performed those versions of that character beautifully on screen. Gwyneth Paltrow, as the retired actress who is craving for that validation of the audience, performed that role very charmingly, and I loved the scene where she confronted Marty for using her. One of the real pleasant surprises of the movie was Kevin O’Leary as one of the main characters, Milton Rockwell. While I was watching the movie, I was like I know this guy and when I checked online, I found out that he is the face I have seen in those YouTube shorts of Sharktank. For a debut performance, Mr. Wonderful really did a wonderful job.
The beauty of Marty Supreme lies in the way it chooses all the unconventional events to depict this entitled American without celebrating him. In many ways, the approach is very similar to The Wolf of Wall Street. We are basically laughing at the main guy for all the messy choices he made, and Josh Safdie makes sure that the experience of exploring such a person is entertaining for the audience. Loosely based on the real-life person Marty Reisman, Marty Supreme moves with an infectious pace while delivering the impact of a slow-burning character drama.
