In “Marty Supreme,” leading actor Timothée Chalamet and director Josh Safdie created a film unashamed in its defiance of stereotypes, its plot and characterization inextricably tied to Chalamet’s growing infamy.
The movie is based on the autobiography “The Money Player: The Confessions of America’s Greatest Table Tennis Champion and Hustler,” published in 1974 and written by Marty Reisman, an American table tennis player.
Marty Mauser (no, not Supreme or Reisman) serves as the film’s main character. Marty is not an exemplary human being. In fact, he is the opposite. Throughout the course of the movie, he carries out an armed robbery, has affairs with two married women (one of whom he impregnates) and shamelessly accuses a Japanese competitor of cheating after losing to him in the finals of the British Open.
Even then, there is much more.
Marty is not the only detestable character in this film. If asked to find a character you genuinely liked or cared for in “Marty Supreme,” you would be hard-pressed to produce even a single name.
However, I would argue that the lack of likable characters in “Marty Supreme” makes it an even more interesting watch. As Marty’s life falls apart as a result of the impulsive, rash decisions he made in the first half of the movie, you watch with clinical detachment as a man so full of pride has to sacrifice it to satisfy his ambition.
“I have a purpose. You don’t. If you think that’s some kind of blessing, it’s not. It puts me at a huge life disadvantage,” Marty says to Rachel Mizler, played by Odessa A’zion, one of his romantic interests.
The movie raises an interesting question: At what point does ambition become ruinous, detrimental to both oneself and others?
The movie is set in the 1950s, just seven years after the Holocaust. Marty Mauser is revealed early on to be a Jewish man, a child of immigrants, born on the Lower East Side of New York. Marty’s religion plays a significant role in the film, affecting not only our perception of him but his perception of himself.
“I’m Hitler’s worst nightmare,” Marty proclaims, referencing his success.
The shadow of World War II and the Holocaust pervade many aspects of the movie. Béla Kletzki, a friend and competitor of Marty’s, shares a harrowing account of his time at Auschwitz. Marty’s self-proclaimed nemesis, Koto Endo, was deaf as a result of the atomic bomb dropped by the U.S. on Japan, ending the war. Endo was based on Hiroji Satoh, a Japanese table tennis player who defeated Marty Reisman in the 1952 World Championships. He is played by Koto Kawaguchi, himself a table tennis champion.
All this is to say that while the movie is, on the surface, about a talented table tennis player’s struggle for success, its true strength lies in its attention to detail and the subtext beneath.
While the movie was a hit at the box office and with critics, fans’ reception was mixed, ranging from indifference to hatred.
Some suggest that this was due to fans’ dislike of Mauser himself; the character became synonymous with an increasingly “alpha” version of Chalamet, another dimension to a film with many layers.
To sum up, the movie is entertaining, and though you won’t fall in love with any of its characters, the plot is thought-provoking and the acting masterful. “Marty Supreme” is a movie that asks you to think, to ponder and to enjoy the rise and fall of someone for whom success is, at least in his mind, an inevitability.
Oddly reminiscent of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman,” “Marty Supreme” has the potential to become a film that bridges the gap between the present and the past, one of the greats. Until then, we will chart its course — whether it achieves stardom or fades into the background after its sprint to short-lived fame, mirroring its protagonist.
