REVIEW: Timothée Chalamet Delivers His Best Performance In ‘Marty Supreme’ – One Of The Most Defining Movies Of The Decade

Christopher Mills
1 minute ago
5 min read

Marty Supreme. © A24 — *Marty Supreme*. © A24

A movie comes once a year that completely alters my brain chemistry and serves as a great reminder of why I love cinema so much and its importance. This year, Josh Safdie has brought along the sport-drama Marty Supreme and has achieved exactly that. He's created a cinematic experience that has chaotic, frenetic energy written all over it and Timothée Chalamet's Marty Mauser, who arrives with what may be his best performance yet.

The Safdie Brothers, Josh and Benny Safdie, have created countless movies together, ranging from Good Time to Uncut Gems, films that helped give them their name and credibility when it came to creating thrillers and delivering intense and well-written character studies. Both brothers have separated to create their own independent movies, which both happen to be sports films under A24, with Benny Safdie having directed The Smashing Machine and Josh Safdie coming out with Marty Supreme.

The major difference between the two is that, unlike The Smashing Machine, which is a biopic of Mark Kerr, Marty Supreme is merely just loosely based on the life of Marty Reisman, so don't take what you see in this movie for biblical scripture.

Marty Supreme follows Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet), a working-class New Yorker who is a rising table tennis global sensation that believes he's the greatest there is. Unfortunately, this mindset leads Mauser to treat people in his life poorly, as he puts himself first and uses people to gain his success.

From the mind of Marty Mauser, he lives a life that's grand and has ambitions that will change how the sport of table tennis is seen, but the reality is, he's a working-class man who's soon to be the manager in his uncle's shoe shop and is struggling to make ends meet and make the money that will allow him to even go abroad in the first place for these table tennis tournaments.

Marty Supreme opens up with one of the most unexpected visuals, which turns into one of the greatest transitions I've seen in all of cinema from this decade. It sets up a confronting turning point later in the film while also bringing us currently to Marty Mauser's number 1 goal, to be the greatest that there is. It all goes wrong when Marty loses to Japan. Despite this major loss, it doesn't deter him from his journey, and the reality of 1950s America doesn't stop him from ensuring he's on top of the food chain.

This movie is in every way a sports biopic, but it doesn't follow the conventional methods you'd usually find in one. Josh Safdie brings that kinetic and unpredictable nature that you can find in his other films, such as Uncut Gems, that works perfectly in Marty Supreme with Timothée Chalamet's chaotic and endearing performance that really brings it all together. Chalamet has shown with movies like Dune and Bones and All that he's used to portraying complex characters and is able to take charge of the big screen with his commanding presence.

He brings that to Marty Supreme, but unlike his other works, he plays a character that's a narcissistic, hot-tempered man who creates a ton of obstacles for himself and the people around him. Marty Mauser should be a character we hate, but Chalamet's performance is infectious, and you can't help but cheer him on at every step throughout the movie, hoping that he does indeed become the greatest and also hoping deep down that he might change for the better.

Timothée Chalamet may be the star of Marty Supreme and what keeps the audience engaged with it, but this film's supporting cast is almost just as good as its lead. Gwyneth Paltrow is fantastic as the mature Kay Stone, who was once a famous movie star but is struggling to hold onto that stardom. Stone's character forms a relationship with Marty Mauser, and while it's one that Mauser remains immature in, it acts as a wake-up call for Stone, who's getting to relive her youthful years through the eyes of Marty. Two characters who contrast each other well: Stone, who was once the greatest and has failed to attain that, and Mauser, who believes he's the greatest and is doing everything to prove that.

Odessa A'zion also comes through with yet another great performance as Marty's childhood friend, Rachel Mizler. What's great about all the supporting casts in this movie is how they anchor themselves to Marty Mauser. Their personalities are the complete polar opposite of his, and their journeys in the film should put Mauser on a path that changes the way he behaves, but interestingly enough, as close as they get with him, they never manage to pierce his heart until those very last moments.

The most surprising performance comes from Tyler Okonma, famously known as Tyler the Creator, who breaks out in his feature film debut. He plays Wally, a taxi driver in New York who's the only real friend that Marty actually has. You can see Tyler's identity in the character, but it works with the unpredictable nature of Marty Supreme, and once you get to a sequence that involves the two characters, you'll finally understand just how unpredictable this movie really can be.

Don't let the grand marketing for this movie fool you; Marty Supreme is still an indie movie despite Marty Supreme windbreakers being sold exclusively around the world, Chalamet being the first to stand on the Las Vegas Sphere and him collabing with EsDeeKid for a "4Raws" remix that broke the internet. After watching Marty Supreme and witnessing the marketing behind it that has all come through Timothée Chalamet's mind, it makes you realise that both Chalamet and Mauser might not be too different from each other. Timothée wants to become one of the greatest actors, with his name etched onto an Academy Award, which we may possibly see next year, as he's delivered his best performance yet, and you have Marty, who wants the world to know his name for table tennis.

Marty Supreme comes full circle, and from its marketing to the movie itself, it's one of the strongest films of the decade and arguably the best film of the year. It's bound to become a timeless classic and a film that people will look back on, write retrospectives for and celebrate as it reaches its monumental anniversaries. Timothée Chalamet has always been an actor to keep an eye on, but after Marty Supreme with his kinetic powerhouse of a performance and Josh Safdie proving that he's capable of creating a masterpiece when isolated from his brother, I'm left wanting to see more from these two.