MARTY SUPREME 2026
by
Josh Safdie
Martin Mauser can think of nothing else except becoming the Ping Pong world champion. That is the essence of Marty Mauser, played by Timothee Chalamet with singular drive and incessant energy. So infectious is his ambition, or obsession, or whatever else one may choose to call it that everything else ends up being relegated to a sideshow in this frenetic story.
Table Tennis was not quite a popular sport in United States in the fifties. The sport was in its development phase with various improvisations and experiments being tried with equipment and playing techniques. Mauser, loosely based on Martin Reisman, the 1958 and 1960 US Singles champion, was a master of hardbat style, but was battered by a deaf Japanese player equipped with a sponge on one side of his racket that generates more spin. Mauser was himself a votary of the idea that ping pong must be played with coloured balls to take care of camouflage against players’ white clothing.
Marty works at his uncle’s shoe store in New York to make ends meet but nurses the dream of becoming world’s best table tennis player. His mother, a holocaust survivor, is not much enthused with his ideas. Marty wears his Jewish identity lightly. He is not averse from cracking jokes upon Auschwitz or selling himself as ‘Hitler’s worst nightmare’ by the very fact of being alive. The existence being hands-to-mouth, Marty is always up to some hustle or underhand scheme to find a way to pay for his ping pong dreams. More often than not, he is thwarted, but dead ends do not dissuade him from trying. He lies, begs, borrows and steals, but does not give up, simply because that is not an option.
In a way, Marty Mauser is living his American Dream, in which everything and everyone else is a mere prop, a sidenote, a puppet, an also-ran, while he realizes his own destiny. The world exists so that America and Americans can thrive is the classic American worldview. His mother is a hindrance. One of his friends is a dimwitted support-system. A black player is a fellow hustler. His childhood sweetheart denotes encumbrance but also progress. Married to someone else, she gets pregnant by Marty but also conceives of schemes to finance his foreign trips. Despite his utter selfishness and singlemindedness, Marty is not lacking for love or friendships.
In London, Marty falls for a retired actress who, in turn, falls for him. He steals her necklace which turns out to be an imitation. Her husband, a pen magnate, a manufacturer of ping pong equipment as well as an organizer of table tennis events and tournaments, takes early shine for Marty, and offers him a passage to Japan to participate in world championship in liue of throwing some matches to the Japanese opponent. Marty rebuffs his offer, but when comes cropper everywhere, runs after him to reconsider. Marty is not above dropping the name of the magnate’s and the actress’ dead son to gain access to them. This eventually earns him a public spanking by the dead boy’s father. Gwyneth Paltrow glows as the retired actress bored in her marriage. Kevin O’Leary has played Milton Rockwell, the influential businessman, and her husband, with sadist’s aplomb. Mention may also be made of Abel Ferrara who plays a gangster whose dog is lost by Marty.
Timothy Chalamet’s intensity reminds one of Leonardo Decaprio’s creation of Frank Abagnale Jr’s persona in Catch Me If You Can. New York of 1950s takes us back to Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets and the times of Johny Boy. But while Johny Boy lived by the moment and with levity, Marty Mauser is consumed by inordinate ambition. Thwarted by forces beyond his control, he somehow always finds a way to play ping pong. I cannot recall any other film after Forrest Gump in which table tennis manages to capture public imagination like in Marty Supreme. Chalamet apparently took TT lessons for six long years, and it shows. Sporting action is top class; one can appreciate spin, depth, angles and pace, and get engrossed in pure table tennis.
Josh Safdie wrote the script along with Ronald Bronstein. Although inspired by Martin Reisman’s 1974 autobiography, The Money Player, Marty Supreme is not a biographical sketch. They have been nominated by the Academy for Best Original Screenplay. Marty Supreme is in race for Best Picture, Actor, Director, Editing, Casting, Cinematography, Production Design and Costume Design as well. Aided by remarkable make-up to highlight his lower end existence and complete camera attention, Chalamet has delivered a compulsive performance. I won’t be too surprised if he actually lands an Oscar for this one.
=======================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================
#joshsafdie #martysupreme #timotheechalamet #martinmauser #pingpong #tabletennis #martinreisman #bestactor #bestpicture #bestdirector #themoneyplayer #ronaldbronstein #oscar #gwynethpaltrow #kevinoleary #penmagnate #meanstreets #catchmeifyoucan #johnyboy #frankabagnalejr #forrestgump
Comments
Post a Comment