Directed by Josh Safdie — Screenplay by Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie.
The intensity and anxiety that the Safdie brothers tapped into when creating their breakthrough features Good Time and Uncut Gems is not easily replicated. The Safdies burst onto the scene with a clear sense of style, storytelling, and ability to foster great leading performances. They not only furthered the reputations of Robert Pattinson and Adam Sandler with those two equally electric films, but they also managed to have the anxieties of their films’ protagonists leap off the screen and affect their viewers. So, when the brothers — Benny and Josh — split up to pursue filmmaking careers as solo-directors, one of the big questions that their ‘break-up’ left you with was whether or not they, on their own, could recapture the same lightning-in-a-bottle concoction that they had successfully conjured into existence together. Josh Safdie’s first solo effort since their recent split is Marty Supreme, a critically acclaimed genre-blended sports film that earned the cast and crew recognition from awards bodies far and wide. But is the film actually as good as its reputation and the intense marketing that its leading man helped promote? Well, before I get into it later in my review, I’ll say this: it certainly packs a spark of energy, which I found to be quite effective. It’s certainly a unique sports film.
Set in the mid-twentieth century, Josh Safdie’s Marty Supreme follows a fictional table tennis player — loosely based on Marty Reisman — named Marty Mauser (played by Timothée Chalamet), a gifted and highly ambitious American table tennis player in his early twenties, who works as a shoe salesman in New York City. As this brash but broke young man tries to catapult himself to superstardom, his emotions get the better of him in pursuit of the sports achievements he desires and the money he needs to realize his dream. Life also gets in the way, as his married friend Rachel (played by Odessa A’zion), with whom he’s previously had an affair, is pregnant and privately claims that he is the father. As he hopes to restore his status in the world of table tennis following a public outburst, he finds himself in a whirlwind of chaos in the pursuit of money, while he is simultaneously trying to attach himself to a former high-profile actress, Kay (played by Gwyneth Paltrow), and her wealthy husband, Milton Rockwell (played by Kevin O’Leary).
I won’t bury the lede too deep. Yes, Josh Safdie managed to recapture the lightning-in-a-bottle energy and spirit of his and his brothers’ best films. From the get-go, Safdie and his collaborators’ work manages to capture the intoxicating, exhilarating filmmaking that they have previously conjured up for their previous works together. You’ve only just settled into the rhythm of the film, when you’re treated to an inspired title sequence featuring a sperm cell racing to fertilize an egg that turns into a ping pong ball. It’s so wild and funny that it almost made me want to stand up and cheer when I saw it. It manages to sustain its energy and its exciting relative irreverence for the entire film without ever being tiring or irritating. Despite taking place in the 1950s, the film features deliberately anachronistic needle drops from the 1980s, including songs from Tears for Fears, Peter Gabriel, Alphaville, and Public Image, Ltd. Plus, Daniel Lopatin’s score, with its synthesizer sounds and choir voices, follows that sense of delightful anachronism. It adds to every scene it’s in, and it managed to give me chills in even the most mundane moments of the picture.
One of the great things about watching Josh Safdie’s films is that they keep you on your toes. Despite being a sports film and a period piece, it doesn’t fall victim to a tropey structure or formula; it constantly feels unpredictable and like it has tricks up its sleeves. Indeed, it does. Although it does feature plenty of table tennis, multiple extended tension-heavy sequences are about as far removed from ping pong or table tennis as they could be (there’s even an unforgettable scene depicting an urban legend about Auschwitz). Then there’s the showmanship and sell-out sideshow acts that the main character takes part in, which similarly livens the film up. You can feel settled into one scene, but then, out of nowhere, our main character will fall through the floor or get caught up in a shoot-out. The intense and jittery energy that we’ve come to know Safdie’s films for is always there waiting to jump up and take center stage, which it does multiple times. Darius Khondji’s cinematography is similarly astoundingly good, as he, along with the production design and costuming, helps to give everything a perceived texture or tactility. It all looks fantastic, real, and like the nervousness or fierce ambition depicted on-screen could jump out of it. I will also highlight the writing here, as it’s clear how much love and time were put into making this project shine. There are so many layered, deep lines of dialogue early in the film that speak to characterization in great, subtle ways.
It is an exhilarating sports film like no other. A fresh, kinetic story of ambition, where dreams and ambition meet reality and the joys you don’t know you want. At the same time, it is also about the horrific moneymen who rule the world. Those who can open and close doors at their whim. That kind of person is depicted by Kevin O’Leary, of Shark Tank fame, in a moment of quasi-stunt casting, as Josh Safdie has said, specifically, he wanted a person who, when we first see him, immediately gives off that rich asshole vibe. He certainly succeeded in finding the right performer, even though he is not a trained actor. O’Leary is quite good as a character designed to be the personification of capitalist bloodsuckers. Gwyneth Paltrow plays a wealthy, retired actress whom Marty singles out as a person that he wants to get close to, and while it’s not the most showy performance, Paltrow does good work here. As does Odessa A’zion, who gets to participate in some of the more intense scenes in the film. I will also highlight the performance turned in by Tyler, the Creator, who, despite not being a trained actor, holds his own and feels like a true part of the world of the film in every scene he is in.
At the heart of it all, we find Timothée Chalamet, and he is sensational, vulnerable, intense, fiercely narcissistic, electric, sweaty, and unapologetically in your face with a barnburner of a performance. At one point, Marty describes himself as a stick of dynamite, and that is true of his performance, as well. There’s an almost Al Pacino-esque quality to his performance, as Marty Supreme feels like a blend of Safdie energy (known especially from Uncut Gems and Good Time), Catch Me If You Can, Dog Day Afternoon, and After Hours. It is a deeply fascinating and enthralling film about promises, consequences, the American Dream, and individualized American exceptionalism, with Marty representing America at tournaments and speaking about atrocities and other countries as if he’s above them. It’s a fantastic, deliberately anachronistic American Epic. I’ll add that it is a film about how growing up means seeing the world for what it really is — through ups and downs — and reckoning with the place you’ve made for yourself in it, wittingly or unwittingly.
9 out of 10
– Review written by Jeffrey Rex Bertelsen.
