4.5/5
Review by John P. Harvey.
Set in the early 1960s, Marty Supreme follows eight months of the adventures of amateur table-tennis star Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet).
Marty knows his own talent at table tennis, and is convinced that he will beat the ranking champion at the Paris championships: that is if his self-sabotage doesn’t stop him from getting to the tournament. Marty may be brilliant and disciplined in playing the sport, but he also tends toward short-sighted self-centred opportunism, making impulsive decisions heedless of their entirely predictable, serious consequences for himself or others.
The film of course depicts Marty’s sporting prowess. It shows some marvellous table-tennis volleys and trick shots and, amazingly, has us hoping that this fairly dislikable character can win a game when it most counts. But the story is less about sport than about the lessons that Marty fails to learn and the cascade of results of his own poor judgement. Hardly anything of this is explicitly articulated except when somebody close to him calls him a narcissist, but the story and its climax chiefly concern Marty’s character and his potential to take responsibility for his actions.
Performances in Marty Supreme are unfailingly great. But the superb performances by Chalomet himself; by Kevin O’Leary as Marty’s great hope for sponsorship, Milton Rockwell; by Odessa A’zion as Marty’s secret lover, Rachel; and by Gwyneth Paltrow as Rockwell’s wife and Marty’s benefactress-behind-the-scenes, Kay Stone, make the film a compelling watch.
Engaging for its demonstrations of sporting finesse, its depictions of Marty’s unexpected occasional street wisdom and equally unexpected moments of genuine compassion, its portrayal of a complex character of reckless talent whom the audience cannot help wishing to succeed, and for the interesting characters — friends, family, lovers — around whom, though he may not recognise it, his life revolves, Marty Supreme offers an always surprising journey, at a pace that doesn’t let up until the movie’s last couple of scenes, when we learn whether Marty has become capable of transcending his greatest opponent.