Review: Marty Supreme

Official synopsis: Marty Mauser (Timothee Chalamet), a young man with a dream no one respects, goes to hell and back in pursuit of greatness.

Both Safdie brothers split up and directed sports movies this year. While I can't speak for Benny Safdie's The Smashing Machine, if you were worried you'd be losing out on some Safdie chaos in favor of a traditional sports biopic, Josh Safdie's got you. 

Marty Mauser lives and breathes table tennis, but as you can imagine, it's not popular and he has to hustle to make a living playing it. This film is less about the rise of a prominent sportsman and more of a crazy journey Marty has to go through in order to get a chance at being one. It's far more off the rails then I was expecting, and I couldn't love it more for that.

Timothee Chalamet has been putting in great work for years. He should already have the Oscar that went to Gary Oldman (I said what I said) but Marty Supreme might be his best work to date. He goes through the gauntlet of emotions, talks a mile a minute and still manages to make you care about him - ROOT for him, even though Marty is arguably a giant dickhead. That's how you know you've made a good film. When people can root for the shitty human at the center of your film. 

This is most definitely the Chalamet show, but he's supported well by Odessa A'zion, playing his sort of girlfriend who deserves far better than any of the men in her life, and Gwyneth Paltrow, a former actress he crosses paths with. 

I will say the film is a tad too long. Marty's journey is so ludicrous, but there were still times were I felt that 2.5 hour run time. Still, I laughed plenty and had a great time. This feels like a perfect theater movie. High energy, great to watch with a crowd, I'm glad it's doing well at the box office so far.

Grade: A-