Timothée Chalamet’s newest movie, “Marty Supreme,” was a Bonnie and Clyde, post-war, adrenaline-pumping, comedy-adventure-thriller smorgasbord that will have you asking, “Is a game of ping pong really worth some armed robberies, dognapping and a handful of homicides?” and answering “YES!”
The A24 sports drama set in the early 1950s and released on Christmas Day is loosely based on the life of Marty Reisman, a world-class American table tennis player known for his ambition and hustle. Chalamet brought both of those things and more in this one-of-a-kind tale of thoughtless ambition, con artistry and international ping pong.
Marty Mauser, a New York Jew, fights for his spot as the greatest table tennis player in the world, and there’s never a doubt in his mind that he’s anything less. To him, failure “doesn’t even enter his consciousness.” But, as he struggles for money, recognition and respect, his life unravels as he searches for the funds to travel to the World Table Tennis Championship in Tokyo. Through mounting violence and a lot of legal trouble, ambition becomes its own antagonist, and Marty finds out the real price of a dream.
I walked in without much prior knowledge and was expecting about an hour worth of table tennis matches and another hour of Chalamet monologues, but instead got Holocaust jokes and a sort of John Wick dog sub plot that were woven across genres into a film that kept my pulse high and expectations shattered throughout. Never really knowing what to expect next, it was almost as if I was struggling alongside Marty to survive.
With Marty’s antics, it’s a comedy; with its shocking deaths, it’s a crime thriller; with nail-biting table tennis matches, it’s a sports drama. All of it is rolled into one movie in a way I could only describe as perfect. Each genre is used skillfully at the right moment, whether Marty is running a scheme with his lover or saying he’s about to “drop a third atomic bomb” when defeating his Japanese opponent; every line, every scene feels perfectly in place to keep the pace and adrenaline pumping, and it’s never too much.
Throughout this tapestry of genres, Chalamet delivers on every front. He’s a killer, a world champion, a stressed-out boyfriend, hilarious, and above all, a horrible person who puts his ambitions over every relationship and moral boundary in his life. You don’t want to root for Marty’s morallessness, but Chalamet leaves you cheering for his every move.
Though at times it felt as if Chalamet was tapping into his current Gen-Z self, unlike in his other roles, notably “Little Women,” “Dune” or “Wonka,” Marty was still tastefully crafted to portray a scrappier, dirtier, crueler version of Chalamet. I hope that from this role, Chalamet learned to dream big enough for the Oscars, where he’ll no doubt be a top contender.
That’s not to discount the shockingly good performances of the supporting cast. Kevin O’Leary (“Shark Tank’s” Mr. Wonderful), who, in his first major acting role ever, plays a fantastic dream-killing businessman that reminds the audience of realism, points out the foolishness of Marty and essentially tells him, “I’m out.”
In contrast, Tyler Okonma (also known as Tyler, the Creator) was Marty’s ambition-enabler, Wally. As Marty’s partner in crime, Okonma gave a surprisingly hilarious performance that somehow made their violent crimes feel justified through humor.
Marty’s two lovers also gave standout performances. Gwyneth Paltrow plays a scarily convincing washed-up actress and secret lover to Marty, who also reminds us of the cost of dreaming too big. Odessa A’zion plays Marty’s other lover (and victim of his ambition), Rachel. Eight months pregnant with Marty’s child, Rachel finds herself pulled into Marty’s cons and crimes, placing her and Marty in grave danger multiple times. The added stakes and emotional depth of a partner and baby gave this film another dimension that I wasn’t expecting from a sports drama.
Beyond its performances, the film’s relentless pacing stands out. “Marty Supreme” was incredibly unboring. For a movie marketed as a ping pong biopic, there was much more violence than expected. To Marty, the price of getting to the world championship is worth a few bodies. It had about as many jump scares as a standard horror movie (though less gory), which I loved as it kept the pace fast and unexpected.
Similarly, the table tennis never felt too long. I was slightly nervous about potentially watching a ball go back and forth on the screen for hours, but luckily, director Josh Safdie struck the perfect balance of sports tension and keeping a fast, interesting pace. You aren’t watching every point of every match, but you’re still getting the full effect of a stressful, tight game.
What started as me cutting my family Christmas dinner short, saying, “Sorry, gotta go catch a movie…The new Timothée Chalamet ping pong player biopic…Yeah, Grandma, I don’t know, they make a movie about anything these days…” ended in me walking out of the theater saying “I NEED MY WHOLE FAMILY TO SEE THAT!” This movie is for anyone who likes to be constantly entertained and get their pulse quickening (I mean, 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, the people love it).
However, my one gripe, my 10 stars to 9.8 is that, for a movie about dreaming, it doesn’t really inspire one to do so. Marty constantly fails. Sure, he “dreams big,” but he never gets rewarded for doing so. For a sports drama marketed as a movie about dreams, the audience may expect a little something more than constant tragedies. Spoiler alert: It doesn’t make you feel like a heartwarming “Miracle on Ice” triumph.
Although “Marty Supreme” didn’t give me the usual “American dream triumphs over international sports rival” plot I was hoping for, it gave me so much more than I was expecting. It shocked me and made me realize I didn’t need the sports triumph at all. I just needed this movie to be as wild as it was. It doesn’t leave the audience feeling uplifted; it leaves them feeling exhilarated.
“Marty Supreme” is really not a movie about ping pong at all; it’s an adventure story of a scrappy guy doing whatever it takes to earn something, no matter the cost. You don’t want to root for Marty’s insane cons and crimes, but his ambition transcends ping pong into something much more. This film is not a sports triumph, but a triumph of resilience and grit. Overall, “Marty Supreme” showed the painful price of ambition, but made it a delicious blend of chaos, recklessness and moral decay that was satisfyingly dissatisfying.
