Nikki Kalina (’27)
An artistic rendition of table tennis.
This article contains spoilers!
A film whose marketing strategy consisted largely of men dressed as orange ping pong balls and celebrities varying from Michael Phelps to Ringo Starr donning its merchandise, Marty Supreme was awaited with equal amounts of fascination and confusion. Timothée Chalamet stars in Josh Safdie’s intense American sports comedy-drama that is now A24 studio’s most expensive movie to date. Set in 1950s New York, the film is loosely based on the real story of 1958 and 1960 US men’s single champion for table tennis, Marty Reisman.
A pivotal moment of the movie comes when we are first introduced to Marty Mauser’s character. The audience comes to first understand the extent of Marty’s ambition in his efforts to speak with Milton Rockwell, a wealthy businessman whom he ultimately hopes to strike a deal with in order to advance his career and be able to play in the British Open for ping-pong. As they converse, Marty tells what he finds to be a funny story of his friend and fellow table tennis player Bela Kletzki’s time in a concentration camp during the height of WWII.
Kletzki details how he was once allowed to leave his cell and decided to destroy a bee’s nest and smear himself in honey in order for his fellow prisoners to eat off of his naked body. This moment of utmost humility, desperation, and anguish that Kletzki experienced was made into nothing but a comedic anecdote in Marty’s efforts toward forming a friendship with Rockwell and securing a financial backing to accomplish his dreams at a championship. Here, the audience comes to grasp how Marty sees all those around him as merely stepping stools in his work toward greatness.
Further on in the film we see Odessa A’zion play Rachel Mizler, Marty’s main love interest and the mother of his child. Her enigmatic character easily steals the screen, and her relationship with Marty briefly allows the audience to see into his humanity and love for things aside from his own goals. Even then, he still pushes Rachel to the side when given the chance to compete in Japan against his biggest rival, Endo. He similarly gives little importance to Kay Stone, Milton Rockwell’s wife who he seduces in order to attempt to steal her expensive jewelry to be able to afford his flight to Japan. Gwyneth Paltrow’s haughty performance as a washed-up movie star serves as a chilling contrast to Marty, who has seemingly unending energy to pour into his table tennis dreams.
Chalamet’s work is ambitious and unrelenting. He made clear in many of his interviews preceding the film’s release that he believes Marty Supreme to be his greatest work to date; naturally, this left viewers with high expectations. However, it’s undeniable Chalamet delivered a strong performance throughout the film. When Marty finally wins against his rival Endo in Japan, his face of pure victory, relief, and exhaustion is beyond moving; he is brought to the point of tears. It was the standout moment of the film, especially considering how Marty cries only twice despite his story being filled with emotional turmoil.
It seems easy to fall into the same viewpoint as many American Psycho lovers, who ignore the irony of the words and actions of the protagonist and instead choose to idolize him for his audacity. It’s crucial to note Marty’s selfishness and disregard for the lives of his best friend, his lover, and even the mother of his child in his pursuit toward greatness. He consistently pushes all of these people to the sidelines in order to accomplish his goal of traveling to Japan and defeating Endo once and for all. Many seem to disregard the true intention of Marty Supreme: to portray its protagonist not as the unlikely hero, but as the extreme narcissist he constantly shows himself to be. It is only in the film’s closing, when Marty comes face to face with his son, that he begins to understand there is life beyond his own obsession with greatness.