Marty reigns supreme

After a musical collaboration with British rapper EsDeeKid, seven years of ping pong training between film shoots, a Timothee Chalamet Wheatie’s box, a campaign of orange blimps and a viral “leaked” Zoom meeting, “Marty Supreme” and its leading man have been confidently promoting and positioning the movie for cinema greatness. With nine recent Oscar nominations, it may have the chance to do just that this coming March.

Walking out of the theater after my first viewing, my head was spinning from the bizarre, stress-inducing and ever-evolving story of Marty Mauser’s pursuit of ping pong greatness. Though the proceeding car ride with my family was filled with arguments over whether the film’s destructive themes, Mauser’s conniving behavior and the unending failures were enthralling or infuriating, the discussion of our varying reactions to Mauser’s journey only solidified my sense of awe. The hype created by Chalamet and the film’s marketing team was well-deserved, leaving myself and others overflowing with enthusiasm.

“I don’t think I felt as positive about a movie as I did for ‘Marty Supreme’ in a little while,” said senior Oscar Nicolson. “It’s definitely an energizing movie. I finished seeing it close to midnight, but I felt ready to go. It’s one of those movies like ‘Rocky‘ where it makes you want to run through a wall.” 

The movie creates intensity by keeping Mauser in a perpetual state of panic. His cunning and risky decisions in combination with his impoverished and collapsing familial ties leaves him battling to escape his web of lies and destitute circumstances. After losing money and fame to his Japanese opponent Koto Endo on the global stage, Mauser becomes determined to redeem himself at the next championships in Japan, no matter the cost. 

“The story structure of the film never lets you expect a certain thing,” said Aragon alumnus and film major at Emerson College Andrew McColl. “The narrative structure throws a bunch of different events at you and it shuffles them around. It’ll show you one, and then take it out for a little bit, and then it brings it back in at the worst possible moment … It’s really going to be a lot of fun to watch [for the first time], because it contains a consistent high energy.”

This pattern of tension, release, repeat continues as the film follows the now penniless ping-ponger and the disasters that follow his desperate attempts to pay for a flight to the tournament. He sexually manipulates Hollywood star Kay Stone, hustles table tennis players at a bowling alley, ransoms a dog he doesn’t even have and along the way falls through a bathtub, blows up a gas station, bashes his lover’s ex-husband with a ping pong trophy and totals three cars. Failing to trick his way to the tournament, however, Mauser gives up his dignity and begs businessman Milton Rockwell to fly him there for a staged match against Endo. 

In a devastating but deserved turn of events, Mauser’s unsportsmanlike conduct leaves him unable to actually compete in the tournament, forcing him to risk his deal with Rockwell by competing to his fullest at the staged match. Beating Endo in front of a massive audience, Mauser returns home titleless, yet in a blaze of table tennis triumph. Upon his return, Mauser finally sees his newborn and is brought to tears, perhaps realizing the fault in his prior reckless ambition and understanding his greater purpose.

The crux of my emotional connection to the story stemmed from my paradoxical admiration of such a flawed yet inspiring character as Marty Mauser. The film draws upon the youthful aspirations for supreme greatness, leaving many young people like myself feeling inspired in spite of his ego and endless wrongdoing.

“He’s a likable, unlikable character if you will,” Nicolson said. “He screws basically everybody in his life over in pursuit of a dream that he never achieves in full. In some way, you can see it as this pointless sacrifice. But equally, at the end he has this beautiful moment with his child … There’s a portion within you that says ‘I want to be Marty Supreme: I want to have a dream that worthy of chasing and I want to have a passion that I feel so committed to.’”

Safdie’s casting fills the film with celebrities, including NBA players as Harlem Globetrotters, real-life table tennis champion Koto Kawaguchi as Endo, magician Penn Jillette as shotgun-wielding dog-napper, Shark Tank investor and entrepreneur Kevin O’Leary as a business CEO, and Tyler the Creator as Marty’s best friend. Safdie’s very intentional casting choices add to the story with real-life connections, with many of the film’s key players being reflections of their real-life counter-parts.

“The Safdie brothers are known for casting specific people in specific roles for specific reasons,” McColl said. “For example, in’ Marty Supreme,’ the character Marty Mauser was written based off of Josh Safdie’s interactions with Timmy the first time he met him. Gwyneth Paltrow’s character is a formerly famous movie actor who is washed up now, and Gwenyth Paltrow hasn’t had a big movie role in almost 10 years at this point. Kevin O’Leary’s character is basically just Kevin O’Leary. ”

Chalamet’s casting adds another layer of nuance when one considers his “pursuit-of-greatness” media persona.

“Marty Mauser is based off Timothy Chalamet,” McColl said. “I remember last year he won the SAG Award … In his award speech, he declared that his goal was to be one of the greats, and his ambition and drive was simply going to get higher from there … his ambition and drive has only gotten much larger, especially when you look at Marty Supreme and the marketing campaign that he himself has really orchestrated around it.”

In the midst of famed actors and celebrities however, rising actress Odessa A’zion had one of the strongest performances as Rachel Mizler.

“I hadn’t seen anything of [A’zion’s] before, but she really did a great job,” Nicolson said. “I liked her character in the sense that she’s painted as this innocent character for most of the movie that is just getting screwed over by circumstance. [Like] the fact that she gets pregnant … and then is forced to go into this marriage [with another man]. You think it’s an abusive marriage, but then you find out that she’s a manipulator too, [and] that the black eye is fake. I thought that was a really cool depth of character.”

While many criticisms of Marty Supreme come down to preferences, such as its stressful storylines and an abundance of dislikable characters, Marty’s repeated trickery and failure becomes routine over the course of a two and a half hour movie.

“Marty makes a decision that no sane person would make, and then has to deal with the consequences for it, and kicks the can down the road,” McColl said. “And then he starts doing something else … It leads to a lot of high energy. You get invested, but it is very repetitive and a lot of it is kind of meaningless.”

While the marketing team has certainly publicized its “Dream Big” philosophy and Chalamet has expressed his ‘pursuit of greatness,’ the story’s themes themselves toy with whether the risks of such desires are justifiable.  

“It’s talking about when a passion can be dangerous,” Nicolson said. “You can do a lot of harmful things to those around you, and you can destroy a lot of people’s lives. You can destroy your own life. But equally, there’s a beauty in that passion and that passion is the reason that we’re put on this earth. The scene where Marty describes

 to [Rachel] how she doesn’t have a passion, how she’s kind of meaningless — it’s very crude, it’s very rude [and] it’s something that really nobody should say to anyone — but it just goes to show the level which Marty is committed to his dream. And in that sense, his dream does dwarf anything she has, and his purpose [feels] really ultimate, and is a passion to be envied.”

Some have also connected the film to director Josh Safdie’s personal experiences.

“I remember reading an article when the film first surprise premiered at the New York Film Festival about Josh Safdie apologizing to his wife and kid for not being at home so much while working on [films],” McColl said. “I remember reading a [negative] comment [saying], ‘Why would you go off and do another movie instead of just directing a commercial and being able to spend time with your family.’ That really stuck in the back of my mind, because when I see Marty Mauser return to his [child] at the end of the film, it reminded me of that moment, and it made me think of how Josh Safdie is translating his own path as an artist into the film.” 

For Chalamet, that ping pong tournament victory moment could certainly appear in the form of a first-time Oscar win this March, though he is facing some tough competition.

“I could very easily say Timothee Chalamet  deserves an Oscar for this role … but [there are also] other phenomenal performances of this year that he’d be competing against,” McColl said. “This is probably the best that I’ve ever seen of Timothee Chalamet and really pushed him over to be one of my favorite actors, because ….  he truly characterizes Marty Mauser as such a complex character.”

While many like McColl see other performances as similarly deserving, I certainly felt much more impressed and fascinated by Chalamet’s ability to turn an easily dislikable lead into an inspiring legend than other contenders for the award.

“[Chalamet] deserves the awards,” Nicolson said. “He is the film. At some level, it’s totally dependent on him. And I’ve seen a lot of the other movies that are being nominated — One Battle After Another and Sinners — there’s no other movie that rests solely on one individual in the way that Marty Supreme does. So he definitely deserves acclaim …  He is a producer on the film, so if they win Best Picture that goes in his cabinet as well.”

Having enjoyed numerous strong award contenders like One Battle After Another, F1, Frankenstein and Marty Supreme this year, I personally hope that “Marty Supreme” wins best picture and would be elated for Chalamet to finally win a leading actor Oscar. I would give Marty Supreme a smashing five out of five stars.