Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Josh Safdie
Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A'zion, Kevin O'Leary, Tyler Okonma, Abel Ferrara, Fran Drescher
You never hear people complaining that Chaplin made too many comedies, Ford made too many westerns or Kurosawa made too many Samurai movies. And yet today's filmmakers are often expected to express themselves across a range of genres. Stick to one genre and today's cinephiles will quickly label you a one trick pony. Even Scorsese's detractors moan that he keeps making gangster movies, even though such films account for no more than a fifth of his filmography.
Despite staying within his comfort zone of New York dramas featuring scuzzballs racing across the city as they attempt to achieve some dubious goal, Josh Safdie has so far avoided such criticism. Maybe it's because his films are so energetic, and despite repeating essentially the same shtick they're marked by striking lead performances by the likes of Robert Pattinson, Adam Sandler and now Timothée Chalamet.
Having worked successfully with his brother Benny since 2009's Daddy Longlegs, Marty Supreme sees Josh strike out on his own for the first time since his 2008 debut The Pleasure of Being Robbed. Loosely inspired by the flamboyant real life table tennis player Marty Reisman and set in 1952, Safdie's film casts Chalamet in the role of Marty Mauser, a young man who works as a shoe salesman by day while hustling in ping pong clubs by night. Marty has grand ambitions of becoming the table tennis world champion, and he's probably good enough to achieve it, but as a working class Jewish New Yorker his access to this refined world is limited. To compete in the world championships in London, Marty robs his uncle's shoe store to fund the trip. He fails to win the championship but beds a once-adored movie star in Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow) and sees her pen magnate husband Milton Rockwell (Kevin O'Leary) as a potential source of funding for his career.
What follows is a bigger budgeted variation of the Safdie template. Rather than merely dashing across New York, Marty's misadventures see him traverse the globe. It's essentially the story of a young Jewish man naively believing he can be accepted by a gentile world that was turning his people into soap just a decade earlier. He's exploited by Rockwell, an anti-semite who takes a delight in humiliating Marty and encourages him to take part in and lose a rigged exhibition match against Japanese champion Koto Endo (Koto Kawaguchi). Rockwell hates Jews so much that he blames them for his son's death in the war ("he gave his life liberating you people!") while cosying up to the Japanese who actually killed his son. Marty is so blinded by ambition that his eyes are closed to such prejudice, but the people in his Lower East Side community are all too aware of it. Marty wants to escape the world in which he's grown up, but unlike the WASPs he attempts to ingratiate himself with, it's his community of Jews and African-Americans who actually have his back. This is represented through the figures of Rachel (Odessa A'zion), a young married Jewish woman carrying Marty's child, who is willing to break a few rules herself to help Marty; Marty's mother (Fran Drescher) and uncle (Larry "Ratso" Sloman), who plead with him to stay in New York with his own people; his long-suffering friend Dion (Luke Manley), who devotes himself to pulling off Marty's dream of producing his own brand of ping pong ball (the "Marty Supreme"); and Wally (Tyler Okonma), a young African-American who is willing to help Marty get out of a rut at the drop of a hat. You might even read Marty Supreme as Josh's commentary on his brother's recent attempts to make it in Hollywood (ironically Marty Supreme made more in its opening weekend than Benny's solo debut The Smashing Machine managed in its entire theatrical run).
While Josh has remained on his home turf of New York, he's very much working with a Hollywood budget here. The money has been well spent on hiring such legendary talent as production designer Jack Fisk and cinematographer Darius Khondji. They do an unsurprisingly fine job of recreating 1950s New York, but ever the trickster, Josh purposely subverts this with an anachronistic soundtrack of '80s British synth pop accompanied by a Tangerine Dream-esque score by Daniel Lopatin. This ties his film into all those '80s movies about young men striving naively for success while ignoring the people who love them, and posits Chalamet as the natural successor to the likes of Tom Cruise and Michael J. Fox.
This might be Chalamet's finest performance, his charisma sweeping us up in Marty's misjudged schemes. He fully convinces as the sort of manipulative asshole who can convince those around him that he's someone worth investing in, and we're so seduced by his twinkling eyes that we have to keep reminding ourselves just what a shitheel Marty really is. Once again Safdie has populated his supporting cast with non-professional actors. Best known as the host of TV's Shark Tank, O'Leary is a natural in his acting debut, so intimidating as a powerful uber-WASP that we almost believe Rockwell when he claims to be a vampire born in 1601. New York filmmaking legend Abel Ferrara is similarly menacing as a mobster Marty makes the mistake of attempting to swindle. Best known by his hip-hop handle "Tyler the Creator," Okonma displays a natural charm, as does first-timer Manley as Marty's devoted pal. Elsewhere Safdie fills his cast with a collection of novelists, athletes and business figures, along with people plucked from the street, and Marty Supreme boasts some of the most fascinating faces you'll see outside of a Fellini film.
At 2.5 hours, Marty Supreme threatens to stretch its premise, but Safdie's controlled chaos directing style and his sharp editing with his co-writer Ronald Bronstein ensure that the narrative never sags. Watching Marty Supreme is like playing a bout of ping pong; we're never given pause for breath, and just when we think we know which shot we're about to be served, Safdie hits us with an unexpected curveball. How much longer can Safdie milk his favourite premise of scuzzy strivers? If he keeps delivering movies this entertaining he can continue remaking them over and over for the rest of his career. I for one will keep showing up for the Safdie show.
Marty Supreme is in UK/ROI cinemas now.
