Marty Supreme Movie Review:
Who hasn't dreamt of winning something that would make the entire world take notice? Perhaps that is why an athlete, especially a victorious athlete is widely acclaimed, because everybody wants a piece of that glory. This is why a sports drama always finds favour among the audience. The underdog's journey from struggle to summit never fails to lift their spirits. But Josh Safdie's Marty Supreme is anything but a hero's journey. While the film incorporates elements of a sports drama, it is an enthralling and engaging story of a deeply flawed and an occasionally amoral, table tennis player, named Marty Mauser.
Director: Josh Safdie
Cast: Timothee Chalamet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin O'Leary, Odessa A'zion, Abel Ferrara, and Tyler Okonma
Ideally, one shouldn't root for Marty Mauser to win. He is a deeply narcissistic and opportunistic individual with a fragile character. But Timothee Chalamet's charismatic performance supersedes the audience's questions about Marty's character and makes them forget the ethical dilemmas. Everything that Marty Mauser touches turns bad. He has to resort to lying, two-timing, and even abandoning the ones he cares about to get to his impulse-driven goal. For instance, Marty is involved with Rachel (Odessa A'zion), a married woman. When she gets pregnant and wants his support he denies, bargains, and even insults her greatly because he views those responsibilities, or any human responsibility as a waste compared to his goal. Whether it is trying to convince a ruthless businessman or deal with a criminal whose dog Marty abandoned, Chalamet is quick in transforming himself to convincingly portray Marty's reaction to those high pressure situations. When he says, "I can sell shoes to an amputee," you know it is true.
Surrounding Chalamet is a plethora of memorable performances that doesn't distract from the story. Gwyneth Paltrow's return, in her first non-Marvel role in ten years, is on point with her cogent portrayal of the tragic actress Kay Stone. In their first full-fledged acting debuts, Tyler Okonma and Kevin O'Leary remove all doubt of their acting prowess. Okonma as the loud-mouthed taxi driver, Wally, brings his off screen persona, Tyler, the Creator, into a tamed albeit strong performance. O'Leary's character, business magnate Milton Rockwell, could be categorised into casting by type. But shaking off his Shark Tank persona, O'Leary is able to continuously highlight the power Milton wields, in a 'wonderful' performance. Safdie's usage of non-actors like Luke Manley, who portrays a 30-year old friend of Marty who is used and thrown away, and Koto Kawaguchi, who plays the stoic deaf Japanese athlete Koto Endo, pays off enormously.
Safdie along with co-writer and co-editor Ronald Bronstein build a world that imbibes Marty's hustler nature. The film doesn't have training montages to give time for Marty Mauser to pick himself up after a momentary hurdle. Instead, it resorts to situations that persuade the audiences of his resurgence.
Marty and his best friend Wally find themselves short on cash after a life threatening moment involving a bathtub. Instead of taking it as a sign to earn money legitimately, they hustle for money through underground matches played for bets, which in turn leads to another catastrophic situation. In another instance, Marty and another player, Bela Kletzki, have to convince Milton to sponsor them. In order to convince the bigoted businessman, Bela recounts a story of his time in the Nazi concentration camps, where while dismantling bombs, he found a honeycomb and smeared honey across himself, so that the incarcerated Jew men around him could lick the honey off his body. With such well-written scenes, the film highlights the limits that the men in this world go to attain their goals.
Safdie is also aided by cinematographer Darius Khondji and production designer Jack Fisk to create an immersive and constricting atmosphere of New York in 1952. As Marty's life is boxed in wherever he goes, the frames of the film highlight the claustrophobic nature of his situation. Composer Daniel Lopatin moves away from the brass of jazz to an 80s themed score that superbly elevates the otherworldly nature of Marty's goals and his aspirational nature.
The film, despite certain disengaging moments, is a thorough and sometimes satirical exploration of the 'American Dream'. Marty Supreme does not want to convince you that the titular character is a good man, deserving of a victory just because he struggles. But it urges you to look at it as an episode that grounds an entitled man, who loved living inside castles in the air.