Timothee Chalamet is supremely charismatic and kinetic as a “bad boy” hustler in early 1950s New York with an obsession to make ping pong – table tennis – into a major sport in the U.S., in Josh Sadfie’s kinetic drama MARTY SUPREME. Director/co-writer Sadfie’s story is very loosely based on a real person, Marty Reisman, a handsome, bespectacled, and rail-thin young Jewish man from New York City’s Lower East Side, who was a table tennis wiz with a flair for showmanship in the 1950s. and an obsession to make his sport, ping pong, as respected and a big deal in the U.S. as it already was in Asia and Europe. Safdie renamed Timothee Chalamet’s character Marty Mauser, and takes liberties with the facts, but MARTY SUPREME is a kinetic skyrocket of a drama that picks up speed as it goes, about a man obsessed with a sport no one respected but who is willing to do anything, and everything, to change that.
and the film itself takes a neutral view of his sometimes appalling behavior. Marty’s lack of scruples seems to get worse as he grow desperate to reach his goals, and much of this film better suited for adult audiences than teens (although, by the end, he shows some improvement, and opens the door to more).
In the Lower East Side of 1950s New York City, ambitious Jewish teenager Marty Mauser (Chalamet) is determined to escape the life that is being laid out for him, working in his uncle’s shoe store. Marty is his uncle’s best salesman and the uncle dreams of making him the manager, but selling shoes is not Marty’s dream. He has much bigger dreams, dreams no one respects, to be a ping pong champion while making the sport he loves, and is supremely good at, into a high-profile, popular sport in the U.S.
Timothee Chalamet’s young character is charismatic and he charms all those around him, but he is not a good guy. and the film itself takes a neutral view of his often appalling behavior. Marty’s lack of scruples seems to get worse as he grow desperate to reach his goals, and much of this film better suited for adult audiences than teens (although, by the end, he shows some improvement, opening the door to more improvement).
Fast-talking Marty lives with his mother in a tiny apartment but dodges her questions (and her as well) about what he is doing. When not trapped in the shoe store, he is a hustler who makes a living playing ping pong in seedy tennis table parlors. Those parlors might remind some of the shady pool halls seen in Paul Newman’s classic THE HUSTLER, but such ping pong halls really did exist in the neighborhood where the really Marty grew up. But Chalamet’s Marty Mauser needs no manager to help him achieve his goal. Instead, he charms and exploits a host of people, good and even shady types, to reach his goal.
Marty has a girlfriend, but she is already married to someone else and now pregnant, and he has a circle of admirers, energized by his self-confidence and ambition, who he charms into giving him money or other forms of help. Marty will do anything to get the money for the next international table tennis tournament, where he expects to win the championship, and to make table tennis the major sport in the U.S. that he believes it should be.
MARTY SUPREME is darkly funny, energetic and entertaining – a somewhat bent American Dream. Surprisingly, some of Marty’s crazy antics in this fictional film are based on things that really happened. Timothee Chalamet gives an electrifying performance, one is a string of recent great ones. Chalamet’s unstoppable ping pong hustler and dreamer is backed by a strong cast of stars, often in unexpected roles. Fran Dresser is unrecognizable as Marty’s mother, a sad Jewish mother in a tiny NY apartment who pumps her wild teen son for information on his life, information he avoids giving. Gweneth Paltrow plays an aging movie star wife of a rich man, to which Marty attaches himself with a plan to get him access to places he’s not so welcome. The characters are often quirky, as are the situations Marty finds himself in, and both Fran Dresser and Gweneth Paltrow craft intriguing characters, especially Paltrow’s sharp, hard-eyed star who matches Marty in wits.
The rest of the cast, combined with a twisty plot in which unexpected disasters seem to loom around each turn, make this a drama with the pulse of a thriller. The film pick up speed as it goes, and cocky Marty finds himself juggling more balls than he expected.
While Chalamet’s cocky character is charismatic, resourceful and sharp-witted, he is no model of moral behavior. Early on, he makes a tasteless, anti-semitic joke, and then brushes aside the gasps by saying he’s Jewish so it’s OK, (although clearly not). He and a ping pong playing pal raise money playing demonstration games for money, that involve trick shots that would fit right in with the Harlem Globetrotters if that team played ping pong. Marty hustles unsuspecting people by feigning being a bad player – until the bets are down. At one point, he and a pal pull a con to get a better hotel room paid for by someone else (which really happened), with some unintended consequences.
But it is all in service of elevating his beloved ping pong and putting him on the top of the players’ heap, so we have conflicted feelings about this very young, very ambitious man with a mission. The people who back him up, even when he exploits that trust, seem to have no such doubts, and seem just drawn to his energy and confidence, as he pursues dreams that themselves dare not dream. Maybe it is that impossible dream, or the surprising encouragement Marty gives to other people that everyone else overlooks or dismisses that they too can dream big, and they come along and be part of his adventure.
This is a drama is likely to divide audience opinions, as it has critics, about whether Marty’s willingness to dream big, and commit to a dream others find preposterous, is compelling enough to justify or overcome his willingness to step on other people on his way up, no matter how much he charms those he steps on, in pursuit of that wild dream. Again, that makes this film more suited to grown-ups than the younger audiences who might not be quite ready to grapple with this ethical battle.
Still, MARTY SUPREME is a showcase for Timothee Chalamet, as well as an excellently made wild ride of a most unusual adventure.
MARTY SUPREME opens Thursday, Dec. 25, in theaters.
RATING: 3.5 out of 4 stars
