Timothée Chalamet has been selling performances ever since his breakthrough turn in 2017’s “Call Me by Your Name.” Whether they’ve been true standouts (“Dune”) or less than stellar (“A Complete Unknown”), the 29-year-old actor, even still at what feels like early on in his career, has been eager to reach the heights of undeniable critical acclaim as a serious movie star.
Chalamet said as much in his now-famous SAG Awards acceptance speech earlier this year, in which he proclaimed that he was “in pursuit of greatness,” evoking the names of “greats” like Viola Davis, Marlon Brando and Daniel Day-Lewis.
That may very well be Chalamet’s outlook on his accomplished film profile. He also could’ve been emulating his over-confident character Marty Mauser from his latest big-screen offering, “Marty Supreme,” the frenzied, 1950s-set pingpong affair from “Uncut Gems” co-director Josh Safdie, which hits theaters Christmas Day. In it, Chalamet plays an egotistical, entitled and pretty charming young man, who, like the actor’s speech, goes through hell and high water “in pursuit of greatness” as a pingpong prodigy, so the movie’s vague synopsis says. That description eventually becomes clear over the movie’s extensive 149-minute runtime, though.
Chalamet is on record hyping up what he considers a career-best performance in the film. And while that’s still debatable, I will admit that he’s quite a spectacle in this absolutely unhinged epic (it certainly gives “Uncut Gems” a run for its money) that goes completely off the rails, as we soon learn just how far Chalamet’s Marty is willing to go to achieve said greatness.
Let me paint the picture.
Marty Mauser doesn’t necessarily need a championship title to confirm that he’s the greatest table tennis player in the world. The New Yorker knows that. He gloats about that. And takes every opportunity he can to remind anyone who will listen that he was born to be excellent at the sport. Still, that doesn’t stop the narcissistic young man from relentlessly pursuing his dream at any and all costs to his morals and reputation, even when it seems like the universe is doing its damnedest to prevent it from happening.
That premise fuels the unbridled momentum of “Marty Supreme,” a story that begins as a portrait of an impassioned dreamer and gradually shifts into a cautionary tale about the cost of failure, which Safdie co-wrote with longtime collaborator Ronald Bronstein. As the story follows Marty on several dummy missions, that throughline gets a bit muddled at times. Frankly, the film would have benefited from trimming down a handful of scenes to tighten up what becomes less a sports movie and more a compelling character study.
Much of that impact stems from Chalamet’s portrayal of his fast-talking, endlessly persuasive character who’s always buzzing with energy, even when doing something as simple as selling shoes in his uncle’s tiny store on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Of course, that’s not what Marty wants to spend his days doing. He’d rather hustle at an underground table tennis club or, better yet, play in an international tournament so his skills can finally be recognized on a global scale. But in post-war America, respect for the sport is scarce, even for a gifted player like Marty.
But as mentioned, nothing and no one can stand in his way when greatness is on the line. Not even Marty’s heavily pregnant (and married) girlfriend, Rachel (another standout role for “I Love L.A.” star Odessa A’zion), or his overbearing mother (Fran Drescher), or his boss/uncle (Larry Ratso Sloman), who’d rather see him stay on as manager of his store than chase a futile dream. Marty will con whoever he needs to — including a Hollywood starlet (a big-screen return for Gwyneth Paltrow) and her hard-ass, wealthy mogul husband (“Shark Tank” judge Kevin O’Leary) — and force a rematch with his fiercest competitor (Koto Kawaguchi) just to make his ambitions a reality.
That’s the nature of Marty Mauser and, in essence, “Marty Supreme,” and what makes the film such a chaos-fueled adventure from start to finish.
There are several scenes I think of off the top that capture that maddening energy, one involving Tyler Okonma, aka rapper Tyler, the Creator, in his impressive film debut, where he plays Marty’s cab-driving partner-in-crime Wally. Without saying too much, just know the scene involves another table tennis scam, an angry mob, a runaway dog and a hasty escape from a gas station fire. Chaotic, right?
But seriously, I wouldn’t mind seeing Okonma in more acting roles after this performance. A’zion is equally riveting in her supporting role, to which she still manages to bring a spark by going toe-to-toe with Chalamet’s Marty, and even outsmarting him in one memorable instance.
But make no mistake, the most convincing performance in “Marty Supreme” belongs to Chalamet. And deservedly so, because even though he’s obviously selling us hard on this joyride of a star turn, compared to others, this one is actually worth buying.
“Marty Supreme” is in theaters.
