Supreme, Marty
Attending a midday session in the city I expected to be mostly alone. But Marty Supreme, probably through the appeal of Tim Chalamet to younger audiences, drew a reasonable crowd for what would normally be an oldies and weirdos-like-me session. If you are expecting a feel-good sports triumph story, I was going to say think again, but to be honest it does have that part covered. Marty Supreme goes much further than this though, and I could feel the shock from the kids expecting a safe Chalamet experience when the more violent and gory moments hit.
I am more inclined to compare it to Uncut Gems and Good Time (previous films by the Safdie brother duo of which Josh alone is taking the director helm here) over a sports movie. This is a fast-paced thrill ride that puts itself squarely in the category of nail-biting cinema. Thank you, Josh Safdie, for understanding what we want out of going to the movies and delivering it in spades. Chalamet is outstanding and brings us along for the ride with all the emotional punch of a best actor (give it to him, he’s done enough now to prove he’s no boring teen-looking heartthrob), and the supporting cast (including a small but wonderful role by The Nanny herself, Fran Drescher) are just as good. Hats off to Gwyneth Paltrow for maturing into the older woman role in a role that suits her to a tee.
Do I need to go into the plot? Not really as I would love the reader to go in with the same lack of background as I did and be picked up and hurled along for the ride. Marty is a ping pong player hustler in the early 50’s (very loosely based off a real person) who’s cockiness and confidence land him in all kinds of sticky situations, that’s enough to know. Let’s just say Safdie is a master of building suspense and tension out of bizarre, ever escalating situations that drive the plot forward – the film is the closest rival for best picture to Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another – and he’s the original master-tension builder. The table tennis action is filmed brilliantly and equally as tense as the chases and sticky situations.
Go see it at the cinema and remember what they are there for, and why movies like this are made – to completely escape from the outside world and be absorbed into someone else’s for a few hours.
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