Film Pick of the Week: Marty Supreme - review by Yvette Huddleston
Marty Supreme Prime Video, review by Yvette Huddleston
Timothee Chalamet is on impressive form for this quirky drama that is a heady mix of sports movie, screwball comedy and crime thriller. The pace is breathless, the tension is relentless and the stakes are high throughout, so this is probably not one for those in search of relaxing viewing.
Set in New York in the 1950s in the world of table tennis at a time when the sport was beginning to gain attention on the global stage, it tells the story of Marty Mauser, a bright entrepreneurial chancer who when we first meet him is working as a shoe salesman in his uncle’s shop. He is good at selling shoes, but what he really wants to do is to be a table tennis champion and is aiming to get to the British Open in London in order to make a name for himself and to raise awareness of the sport in America.
He is not an immediately likeable character and he does himself no favours by continuing to behave badly but there is no denying the man has ambition and the self-belief and determination to succeed despite the odds being stacked against him. There is something oddly admirable about that which makes you forgive the arrogance and root for him anyway.
Partly inspired by the life of real-life American ping pong champion Marty Reisman, who was a bit of a showman and later in his career took part in lucrative show matches – for several years he performed a table tennis comedy routine as the warm-up act for the Harlem Globetrotters, a version of which is recreated here.
Chalamet commands the screen and gets excellent support from Odessa A’zion as his married childhood friend Rachel Mizler with whom he is having an affair. After several years away, Gwyneth Paltrow makes a memorable return as ageing wealthy socialite and former stage star Kay Stone with whom Marty has a brief ill-advised dalliance. At the same time, he is trying to persuade her influential businessman husband Milton Rockwell (Kevin O’Leary) to take a financial interest in his table tennis career. Playing with fire seems to be part of Marty’s modus operandi.
Director Josh Safdie, who co-wrote the screenplay with Ronald Bronstein, keeps the calamities coming, driving the narrative along at a propulsive speed and shredding audience nerves at the same time. It’s a rollercoaster ride but one that is well worth taking.