‘Marty Supreme’ review: Timothée Chalamet’s audacious masterpiece about ping-pong

It’s an old storytelling trope that we root for and identify with a protagonist who is good at something. It’s a kink in human wiring that director Josh Safdie exploits to the maximum with Marty Supreme, a huge-hearted epic about love, family, friendship, talent, ambition… and ping-pong.

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OK – make that table tennis, a distinction you’d better remember in the presence of a bat-wielding enthusiast. We’re in a brutally tough and fast-paced New York, 1952, where frustrated shoe salesman Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet, reconfirming his greatness) dreams of leaving his father’s business and becoming America’s next superstar in the game. He’d also be America’s first superstar in the game, given that no one in the country seems to take the sport seriously. If he can raise the travel money to take on Japanese ace Endo (Koto Kawaguchi) in the world championships, first in London and then Japan, he might be the man to change that.

There are obvious parallels to Safdie’s previous film, 2019’s Uncut Gems (co-directed with brother Benny), which was also co-written with Ronald Bronstein and starred Adam Sandler as a New Yorker who needed to raise money with the clock ticking, but Marty Supreme is a much warmer and more generous movie. That’s partly down to the supporting characters, including Marty’s childhood friend Rachel (Odessa A’zion), married lover Kay (Gwyneth Paltrow) and wingman Wally (an excellent if slightly underused Tyler, The Creator), all of whom uplift and challenge the central character in his insatiable quest for greatness.

Marty Supreme is inspired very – very – loosely by real-life table tennis rockstar Marty Reisman, but really it’s about much more than a sidelined sport that can be used as a cheap punchline (guilty). What initially seems to be a tale about the ruinous price of success at all costs turns out to be something at once grander and more grounded, more profound and more humble. Marty has such a wicked tongue that when he boasts, “I could sell a pair of shoes to an amputee,” it’s one of his more palatable lines. And yet his refusal to compromise or curtail himself in any way is not just savage ambition; it’s a lust for life that fills every frame.

The direction is so frenetic that it somehow makes table tennis even more thrilling than the rubber-burning race scenes in F1, while there are at least three jaw-dropping set-pieces that Safdie lands on you like gleefully delivered trick shots. One small but perfectly executed plot twist drew an audible gasp from the audience in the screening that NME attended. The soundtrack pumps with an unlikely mix of pre-rock ’n’ roll bangers (Fats Domino’s ‘The Fat Man’ is used to joyous effect) and ice-cool ‘80s synth-pop, summing up the audaciousness at the heart of Marty Supreme.

This is a story about living a great life, however you may define that. It is a film about living fully and without fear, a cynicism-free zone where, for all their fast-talking, people love each other so much it makes your heart feel like it’s about to burst. Talk about a smash.

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