The Las Vegas sphere transformed into a bright orange ping pong ball. Men dressed in black with orange ping pong heads accompanied Timothée Chalamet in the streets and in interviews. So naturally, as I sat down in the movie theater, I was expecting to hear a story focused solely on a man’s ping pong career. To my surprise, it turned out to be a much more intense, shocking and entertaining story about a genuine go-getter: the ultimate American.
Directed by Josh Safdie and loosely based on real-life American table tennis player Marty Reisman, “Marty Supreme” follows destructively self-confident Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet). Forever a hustler, he is dead set on becoming the best table tennis player in the world, constantly facing and slipping out of self-created obstacles.
As soon as it began, I knew this movie was going to be a wild ride, and that it was. The film was chaotic, successfully emphasizing the unpredictability of Mauser himself. In addition to that, the concurrent storylines allow the movie’s tension to continually build on itself, sublimely culminating in a release of pressure at the end while still implying a continuous pandemonium after the fact.
The score, containing original creations from Daniel Lopatin, also contributed to the stress and high stakes life of Mauser. Classic 80s pop songs like “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears and “I Have the Touch” by Peter Gabriel created a nostalgic feel that my dad described to be the playlist of his youth. Apart from the music, frequent arguments and cacophonies of yelling also added to the chaos.
Shaky cameras throughout the film also emphasize the disorganization of Mauser’s life, and slightly obscured shots between spectator heads made me feel like I was in the audience, watching him experience wins and losses in his table tennis matches. The rich contrast between light and dark during the table tennis championship matches generated such a strange calm, highlighting the difference between unpredictability against one of his few constants in his life: his talent.
The chaos was central to who Marty was, and Chalamet did a superb job in capturing that, depicting Mauser as being annoyingly determined but also with depth and emotion. This movie also exposed me to the acting of Odessa D’Avion, who played Marty’s childhood friend Rachel and sometimes love interest, who I thought dealt great with expressing the conflicting emotions she felt about prioritizing herself or Mauser. Kevin O’Leary, who I’ve only seen from Shark Tank, offered a convincing performance of a millionaire businessman (granted, a character with few differences from his real-life persona). Tyler, The Creator, making his acting debut as a taxi driver and friend to Mauser, performed well too, offering natural on-screen banter with Chalamet.
Though disorganization was intentionally the whole vibe of the film, I found it to be a bit much at times. With all the actors giving strong performances, I was constantly shifting my attention between them, which made it hard to follow some of the storylines or even know what was happening at times.
Additionally, I felt that the marketing was very misleading. A lot of the publicity for the movie had to do with bright orange ping pong balls and just the color in general, and while some may argue that it was symbolically significant, perhaps pointing to his desire for visibility, physically, it ended up being a very minimal plotpoint. There was even a moment near the end of the movie, where I believe the orange ping pong ball would have fit in perfectly, but unfortunately the film didn’t take advantage of the opportunity and, in my mind, didn’t complete that storyline.
Though, I wouldn’t say it necessarily took away from the movie; it was simply something I wanted to see more of.
So, would I watch “Marty Supreme” again? I think it requires a very specific mood to really enjoy it as it is not particularly what I’d call a feel-good movie. But with convincing performances from all the actors involved and the intentionality of the creators in the making of it, I would say this film was a bonafide artistic statement and is definitely worth a watch.
