REVIEW: ‘Marty Supreme’ Is The Sports Story You Didn’t Know You Needed

Marty Supreme is the most exciting movie about table tennis you will ever watch. And, of course, so much more. Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet) is a man destined for greatness. At least, so he believes. He’s on a mission to become the world’s number 1 table tennis player by winning the world championship in London; he’s having an affair with his married childhood best friend, Rachel (Odessa A’zion); plus, he’s trying to make orange ping pong balls a thing.

Written and directed by Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme is a major accomplishment in the history of sports biopics because it doesn’t feel like a biopic. The movie isn’t about Marty’s journey to become a table tennis champion. Ping pong is just a vehicle for exploring a fascinating character—a character whom Chalamet plays exceptionally well.

Marty Supreme is filled with fantastic supporting characters.

Marty is a complicated person. He’s hardly trustworthy, a complete pain to be around, more self-assured than he has any right to be, and yet quite kind and caring, and ultimately a begrudging mensch. The movie is essentially a series of capers that stack up upon Marty until the weight of them all comes crashing down on him.

In addition to his drive for table tennis domination and business prowess, Marty spends his nights hustling suburban yuppies with his friend Wally (played by an exceptional Tyler, The Creator), sneaks around his overbearing mother (Fran Drescher), and is caught in a scam involving an old man (Abel Ferrara) and his dog. 

All of this is also happening amidst Marty’s infatuation with an older retired actress, Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow). Their lives become entangled after a chance encounter with her and her husband, the industrialist Milton Rockwell, played superbly by Kevin O’Leary (aka Mr. Wonderful).

Marty Supreme pulls off an impressive balancing act of subplots.

The true tension of Marty Supreme lies in his constant balancing act amid the self-imposed chaos of his life. At every turn, Marty could make a different choice with his life that would make things so much easier. But his inflated ego keeps him on a constant path towards imploding everything and all his relationships at once.

Of course, the table tennis featured is exciting too. The way the matches are shot helps you seriously invest in every game. Marty’s two main opponents, Koto Endo (Koto Kawaguchi) and Marty’s dear friend, Béla Kletzki (Géza Röhrig), help show how thrilling the sport can be when played by professionals.

Kletzki helps offer Marty an opportunity to make some wildly inappropriate—yet completely hilarious to the initiated—Holocaust jokes. Meanwhile, Endo gives Marty a chance to show his humanity in the way he treats his most substantial opponent.

Rachel is just as diluted as Marty, making her the next-most exciting character to follow.

These foils are crucial for understanding who Marty is. Beneath the bloat and bluster, Marty is a caring and sensitive person. He’s just stuck in a one-track mind that keeps him deadset on being a champion at all costs. Even if the cost is Rachel and the unborn baby, he swears it isn’t his. She is convinced, and the audience knows right away, thanks to a cheeky opening scene that sets the movie’s non-serious tone from the outset.

Rachel is the surprise thrill of the Marty Supreme cast. Her relationship with Marty is completely enthralling and entirely unexpected. Despite its 1950s setting, Rachel is far from a doting housewife-type. She matches Marty’s freak 1-for-1 and is completely autonomous in her equally appalling life choices as Marty is. Their commitment to each other is rock solid and passionate. At times, Rachel is the most captivating part of the entire movie.

Thematically, Marty Surpeme is wise to make its deeper throughlines more subtle. Marty never stands up and declares a burning desire to assimilate into old-money, Christian American society. But his every move itches for it. His lust for Kay Stone, his sucking up to Milton, and, altogether, his insistence upon finally being something he is not betray a desire to evolve into something he is not. And the fantastic irony is that he sincerely believes that table tennis, of all things, is what is going to launch him into the social class he dreams of.

Marty Supreme is, above all, a lot of fun.

Through all of the complicated and intertwined calamities that Marty endures throughout the movie, Marty Supreme completely lands the ending. Everything not only culminates in enormous satisfaction, but every last plot thread is tied up along the way. For a movie with so many subplots, this feels like an outstanding feat unto itself.

Marty Supreme is a lot of fun, with many great supporting performances that rival its lead. It’s as much joy to watch a sports biopic that doesn’t feel like every other one, just as much as it’s a joy to watch a set of unreasonably confident characters pull off twisted capers and intense ping pong matches.

Marty Supreme is in theaters everywhere December 25th.