“Everybody wants to rule the world,” goes Tears for Fears, which we hear at a key moment in Marty Supreme, Josh Safdie’s nerve-wracking adrenaline rush in the film starring never the best Timothée Chalamet.
But here's the thing: everyone may want to rule the world, but not everyone truly believes that they CAN. It could be argued that this is what separates true aspirants from the rest of us.
AND Marty – played by Chalamet in a delightful synergy of actor, role and any fairy dust that makes the performance feel both preordained and magically fresh – is the aspiring one. With every cell of his restless, sinewy body. They should add it to the dictionary definition.
Needless to say, Marty is a New Yorker.
Also, needless to say, Chalamet is a New Yorker.
The same goes for Safdie, the writer-director of Chalamet, whom Chalamet called “the street poet of New York.” So where else could this story take place?
1952, Lower East Side of Manhattan. Marty Mauser, a salesman at his uncle's shoe store, escapes to the storeroom for a hot date with his (married) girlfriend. Suddenly we see footage of sperm traveling – talk about aspiring! – to the egg. Which, of course, transforms into a ping pong ball.
This witty intro won't be the only thing that reminds Uncut Gems, directed by Safdie and his brother Benny. before they split up for solo projects. The film, which is much like its predecessor Marty Supreme, began as a journey through the glistening innards of a rare opal and then ended up in Adam Sandler's colon, mid-colonoscopy.
Sandler's Howard Ratner also aspired to New York, but was sadder and more troubled. Marty is young, determined, daring and always looks to the future. He's a great salesman: “I could sell shoes to a disabled person,” he boasts crudely. But what he plans to introduce to the world has nothing to do with shoes. We are talking about table tennis.
How likely is it that this Jewish kid from the Lower East Side will become the face of American sports and soon be “staring back at you from the cover of a wheat box?”
Marty, quite likely. However, he knows that in the US no one cares about table tennis. He is so determined to prove everyone wrong, starting with the British Open in London, that when there is a problem getting money for a trip, he brandishes a gun at a colleague to get it.
After getting rid of this armed robbery, Marty arrives in London, where he quickly sneaks into a room at the Ritz Hotel. Here he spots fellow guest Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow, in a wise and stylish return to the screen), a former movie star married to an insufferable tycoon (Shark Tank character Kevin O'Leary, one of many non-actors here).
Kay is skeptical, but Marty finds a way to woo her. In fact, all he has to say is, “Come see me.” After seeing him play, she sneaks into his room wearing a lace corset.
Now is the time to stop and look at Chalamet's slightly transformed appearance. He's as thin as a stick, yeah, he never stops moving. His mustache is sparse. His skin is covered in acne scars, just enough to erase any movie-star shine. The most striking thing is that his eyes behind his round glasses are beady and smaller in size. Definitely not those movie star eyes.
But on the other hand, almost all the faces in Marty Supreme are unusual. In a film with over 100 characters, we know the actors (Fran Drescher, Abel Ferrara); non-acting personalities (O'Leary and the excellent Tyler Okonma (Tyler, the Creator) as Marty's friend Wally); and exciting newcomers such as Odessa A'Zion as Marty's feisty friend Rachel.
There are also plenty of non-actors in small roles, plus cameos from people like David Mamet and even tightrope artist Philippe Petit. The dizzying variety makes you wonder how it all came together—does casting director Jennifer Venditti hire interns? Production notes state that for one of the bustling bowling alley scenes, the young men were recruited at a sports trading card convention.
Composer Daniel Lopatin, on the creative team, manages to convey both Marty's beating heart and the ricocheting of ping pong balls in his energetic score. Based on real-life table tennis player Marty Raisman, Safdie and co-writer Ronald Bronstein's script beats with its own, never-stopping pulse. The same dizzying aesthetic applies to Darius Khondji's cinematography.
Let's now return to London, where Marty reaches the final against Japanese player Koto Endo (Koto Kawaguchi, like his character, is a deaf table tennis champion). “I’ll drop the third atomic bomb on them,” he boasts—not his only dubious World War II joke. But Endo, with his unconventional paddle and grip, wins.
After stints as a minor player for the Harlem Globetrotters, including games of ping-pong with a seal – you'll have to take our word for it, guys, we're short on space – Marty returns home determined to compete in the upcoming World Championships in Tokyo.
But he's in trouble – remember when he took the cash at gunpoint? Worse, he has no money.
So Marty is on the run. And he will do anything, no matter how dirty or dangerous, to get to Japan. Even if he has to completely humiliate himself (mark our words), or endanger his friends – or abandon the faithful and brave Rachel.
Is there anything else to Marty besides his obsessive goal? If so, he doesn't know it yet. But the lyrics to another song used in the film are instructive: “Everyone has to learn sometime.”
So can a dedicated seeker end up learning something new about his or her life?
We'll have to see. As Marty might say, “Come see me.”
“Marty Supreme,” an A24 release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association “for strong language, sexual content, some violence/bloody images and nudity.” Duration: 149 minutes. Four stars out of four.
