Marty Supreme showcases Timothee Chalamet in a role that dwarfs all of his previous performances and that’s saying something. It’s very rare to find a type of performance that has such a hypnotic, mesmerizing quality that we are completely glued to the screen eager with anticipation to see what the character does next. Chalamet has mastered such a performance.
Chalamet is guided by the sure handed touch of director/co-writer Josh Safdie who made Good Time and Uncut Gems with his brother Benny once again delves deep into individuals who have gargantuan obsessions which keeps them in a constant state of panic while thoroughly ludicrous moments that make us question of the character will ever feel of sense of normalcy or crumble under the weight of their own ambition.
Chalamet plays Marty Mauser, a young Jewish show salesman living in New York in 1952. He’s also a professional table tennis player and is so talented that he’s been selected to play at the British Open. Mauser is overconfident to a fault but is defeated during the tournament and has to spend the rest of his time abroad entertaining the masses for the Harlem Globetrotters.
Once Marty returns home to New York, he finds himself in one preposterous predicament after another beginning with having an affair with his childhood friend (Odessa A’zion) who is married but pregnant with Marty’s child. He also learns that he’s banned from playing tennis for his failure to pay a fine which could prevent him from competing in the World Championship.
Gwyneth Paltrow costars as a former actress now doing stage work and she begins having a dalliance with Marty. Paltrow doesn’t have a whole lot of screen time but what she has proves to carry equally as much weight and involvement as Chalamet or anyone else in the cast.
This is truly Chalamet’s finest performance yet. Will it be enough to nab him his first Oscar? I’d say he’s more than deserving. He’s immensely skillful in the table tennis sequences which are fast and furious and are just as riveting as any major action sequence in a superhero film. However his narcissistic approach towards his goals and his way of evading the quandaries he finds himself in inevitably become his Achilles heel.
This is a performance that obviously took a lot of effort and detail on the part of Chalamet and Safdie helps navigate him into uncharted waters that any other actor would not have been as effective. Nor does his screen time suffer from overkill; he’s always doing something engrossing with the character each time he’s on screen which thankfully is quite often.
The movie does have its fair share of absurd dilemmas and crippling anxiety which is Safdie in his element. It’s interesting that his brother Benny also directed The Smashing Machine starring Dwayne Johnson in yet another movie about an individual obsessed with his craft that takes its toll.
For two and a half hours, Marty Supreme leaves us more than satisfied and exhausted; it reinforces that great cinema is still here.
Grade: A
(Rated R for language throughout, sexual content, some violent content/bloody images and nudity.)
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