Review by Tim Robins
Marty Supreme’s publicists deserve an award for a campaign that mostly hid the fact the film is about ping-pong, aka table tennis – a game that lacks the glamour of tennis or Formula One racing. The action packed poster seen on bus stops everywhere is of the titular Marty racing, a bag of worldly belongings in hand, through the streets of New York to escape the law. The fact the poster shows star Timothée Chalemet in a vest no doubt adds to the film’s appeal. He is, after all, a bit of a twink.
The script never loses its ability to take a startling turn. Right from the start, Marty Supreme, the title a reference to “Marty Supreme” ping-pong balls designed as merchandise, took me off guard with a title sequence that audaciously and hilariously illustrates the consequences of Marty playing away from home.
The film follows Marty’s ambitions to conquer the world of table tennis. But the plot is digressionary and ping pongs between Marty’s personal relationships and his finagling attempts to raise enough money to play championship matches – although, these become intertwined.
By rights, we should hate Marty. Sure, he is poor, a working class Jew in 1950s’ New York, but he barely recognises the impact his words and actions have on others. Gish galloping over potential backer, Milton Rockwell (Kevin O’Leary), Marty promises “I’m going to do to Kletzki (his opponent) what Auschwitz couldn’t”. He quickly adds that it’s OK for him to say that, because he too is Jewish. But it really isn’t.
There were sharp intakes of breath among the audience at that, myself included. And again, when Marty tells Rockwell that defeating Koto Endo (Koto Kawaguchi) in the world championship would be like dropping another nuclear bomb on Japan, and will avenge the death of Rockwell’s son who was killed in the war. The moment is eye-wateringly crassness.
Marty Supreme is loosely based on the life of real world table-tennis player, Marty Reisman. A number of events in the film actually happened to Reisman, including performing a comedy warm-up routine for the Harlem Globetrotters using pots and pans, and a disastrous attempt to bet on himself with a man he mistook for a bookie; but turned out to be the head of the United States Table Tennis Association. However, I’m not sure the athlete ever had to endure, as Mart Mauser does, the humiliation of being paddle-boarded by a wealthy backer (yes, those are Chalamet’s real buttocks on display!).
The film is snappily scripted and briskly edited but with plenty of space to get to know its cast of characters: Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow), plays Marty’s sometime lover and Rockwell’s wife and Rachel Miltzer (Odessa A’zion) is Marty’s childhood friend, and long-suffering love interest.
Paltrow absolutely smashes her role as an aging actress trying to rally her career in a play funded by her wealthy husband. She sees right through Marty’s motives for seducing her, but just doesn’t care and therefore has the upper hand. In contrast, A’zion’s Rachel is a long suffering girl next door, marginalised almost to the end by an indifferent Marty, who sees her as little more than a prop in his bewildering capers. Then, the tables are turned.
The score, by Daniel Lopatin, picks up on the rhythms of ping pong but throws in menacing undertones by gesturing to, of all things, Enio Morricone’s orchestration for John Carpenter’s The Thing. Recent pop songs, including Tears For Fears’ “Everyone Wants to Rule the World”, are anachronistic, but work to make the 1950’s setting and Marty’s ambitions relatable.
It helps that director Josh Safdie’s camera loves Chalamet’s face and, notwithstanding the film’s strong supporting cast, Chalamet carries the film. This is an acting tour de force, right to the last frame.
There’s no way of spinning this: the Dune films really didn’t serve Chalamet all that well. The actor spent six years training for the role of Marty. They weren’t wasted. Chalemet carries us right through to the heart-wrenching end.
Marty Supreme is disarmingly entertaining – think Woody Allen with a touch of Martin Scorsese – and the perfect antidote to the bloated eye candy nonsense of Avatar: Fire and Ash.
Tim Robins
Marty Supreme is in cinemas now
Head downthetubes for…
• Jewish Currents: Marty Reisman, Table Tennis Champ
Table tennis champion Marty Reisman was born in New York City on this date in 1930. Reisman, known as “The Needle” due to his slim build, learned to play the game in New York settlement houses, starting his career during his teen years as a ping pong “hustler” (as he referred to himself in the full title of his 1974 memoir, The Money Player; the Confessions of America’s Greatest Table Tennis Champion and Hustler)
• The Chiseler: From Broadway to Bombay: Marty Reisman (1930-2012)
An interview with the inspiration for the film, by Andy McCarthy
• AdWeek: How A24 and Timothée Chalamet Dreamed Big for the Marty Supreme Marketing Campaign (Subscription Only)
The film brought Marty Supreme to life by blurring the lines between fiction and reality
• Los Angeles Times: Is Timothée Chalamet as good at pingpong as his character in ‘Marty Supreme’?
• Esquire: The Marty Supreme Costume Designer Breaks Down Timothée Chalamet’s On- and Off-Screen Fits
Miyako Bellizzi discusses Josh Safdie’s table tennis epic
- About the Author
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A freelance journalist and Doctor Who fanzine editor since 1978, Tim Robins has written on comics, films, books and TV programmes for a wide range of publications including Starburst, Interzone, Primetime and TV Guide.
His brief flirtation with comics includes ghost inking a 2000AD strip and co-writing a Doctor Who strip with Mike Collins. Since 1990 he worked at the University of Glamorgan where he was a Senior Lecturer in Cultural and Media Studies and the social sciences. Academically, he has published on the animation industry in Wales and approaches to social memory. He claims to be a card carrying member of the Politically Correct, a secret cadre bent on ruling the entire world and all human thought.
Categories: Features, Film, Other Worlds, Reviews
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