Review of Marty Supreme, directed by Josh Safdie

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

I recently started an 8-5 job and have been trying to reclaim my sanity and hobbies by finding fun things to do on the weekends and after work, and one of my saving graces truly has been my AMC A List subscription. I’ve always had one on and off throughout graduate school, and I recently reclaimed my subscription after a brief stint of thinking I was going to move to India (long story).

Sometimes the movies I really want to see aren’t included on AMC A List, which is sad, but I accept the reality of the situation. I get a ton of use out of this subscription despite that. On a slightly different note though, I used to work professionally as a film critic, which is very much a dying career, and when I would go to the film festivals I watched everything that really excited me.

Marty Supreme would have definitely been one of the movies that I would have gone to see at a film festival, but because I gave that up and got a regular job (critic jobs are definitely dying, and if they exist, they barely pay you anything, let alone healthcare and insurance in the United States) while continuing to work on this blog. So instead, I used my subscription to see this on a cold Sunday night!

I wanted to see this before the hype came out and everyone was talking about it, but then the marketing definitely convinced me to see it more. I fell for that one, that’s for sure.

Let’s get into the review before I start rambling too much!

Table tennis player Marty Mauser is willing to scrape his way to glory, even if it means sacrificing the people around him.

The year is 1952, and in New York City, a young 23-year-old named Marty Mauser is ready to take on the world. Despite having a dead end job at a shoe store with his uncle, living with his mother, and no money really coming in, he believes firmly that his talent will take him to the top. When his neighbor/childhood friend Rachel comes in, they have sex in the backroom and the seed for her pregnancy is planted.

Marty is preparing for the British Open, as he believes he can win it all and knock out the reigning world champion. He’s also working with his friend Dion and his dad to make orange tennis balls with his name, but that proves to be an egotistic stroke later on. When Marty’s uncle refuses to give him $700 he promised him for his trip, he holds his coworker up at gunpoint and takes the money from the vault.

In London, he proves to be unhappy with his accommodations and crudely complains to one of the higher-ups in table tennis, making the guy hate him. He moves into the Ritz Hotel when he can no longer handle the barracks, and when he spots former actress Kay Stone walking across the room, he decides he has to have her. He calls her room and instructs her to meet him, then gives her tickets to his next match.

Marty ends up defeating the reigning champion in the semifinals, then infuriates Kay’s husband, pen magnate Milton Rockwell, when he buys his entire table dinner. The next day, Kay shows up to his match, but Marty loses terribly to the Japanese player Koto Endo, who becomes a household name in Japan because of how he won the championship.

He accepts his fate and starts touring with the Harlem Globetrotters, but in actuality he wants to play again. Milton gives Marty the chase for a rematch against Endo as a promotional stunt for his pens, but Marty refuses angrily when he realizes that he would be forced to lose, then insults Rockwell’s dead son who passed during World War II.

After that Marty heads home, but is arrested by his uncle after taking a shower at his apartment. He flees through the fire escape, then meets up with the now very pregnant Rachel while evading the cops. She helps him flee, much to her husband’s anger, and then Marty meets up with his buddy Wally. With him, they open mail from the International Table Tennis Association and learn he has a $1,500 fine for his Ritz stay and a potential ban from the sport.

They check into a seedy hotel and when Marty doesn’t listen and takes a bath, the tub falls onto mobster Ezra and his dog. As Ezra lies bleeding, he tells Marty to take the dog to the vet and gives him cash. They end up in New Jersey with the dog hustling at a local bowling alley, but when the guys found out they were scammed, they corner Marty and Wally at an abandoned gas station.

They manage to get out with the taxi damaged and the dog lost on the streets. Marty goes to find Kay, who’s starring in a Broadway show Milton is financing, and he tries to steal her fake diamond necklace to pawn off. Rachel finds Marty and tells him that her husband is beating her, then they stay with Dion, who made the tennis balls and expects Marty to continue working his business contacts.

The duo steals Dion’s father’s car and they head out to Jersey to find the dog, but are shot at by a farmer who took the dog in. Dion then kicks them out after a violent confrontation, as Marty discovers Rachel’s black eye is fake, and Dion realizes that Marty screwed him over. When she goes back to her husband, he kicks her out.

Marty goes to Kay, who gives him a ticket to her play after he apologizes for stealing her jewelry. That night, they have sex in Central Park after she tries to give him a real necklace, but the police catch them and they’re forced to bribe them with the necklace. Marty begs Kay for another one, but when she returns home, she discovers a bad review in The New York Times and has a breakdown.

Impatient, Marty goes in after her and submits to Milton by letting him spank him with paddles after Marty begs for a way to Japan. Milton does agree, but Rachel, after trying to con Ezra, is kidnapped and Marty then is forced to go with them. They go to Jersey, and after knocking at the door, Ezra and his cronies are shot dead. Rachel is left with a gunshot wound and they abandon the dog after Marty realizes the money Ezra had wasn’t worth anything.

He drives Rachel to the hospital as she starts giving birth, then departs for Tokyo. He faces Endo off in the exhibition match, but then goes off script when they have him try to kiss a pig. He demands another match that’s real, making Milton cut him off financially, and he defeats Endo in front of everyone.

The movie ends with Marty heading home with the army, seeing Rachel, and crying as he sees his baby for the first time.

Overall Thoughts

I went in with the expectation that this will be similar to Uncut Gems, but it lacks the same kind of frenetic energy that movie produced. I say this movie is still pretty chaotic, but at the same time it wasn’t edited in the same way that made me feel like I was going to have a panic attack sometimes.

I say the Safdies do a great job of creating these characters that really make you hate them. Marty is definitely one of those characters, as he’s someone who’s willing to throw everyone under the bus in order to get what he wants, even if it means some pretty awful emotional manipulation. I was kind of surprised at the ending, but will a kid truly tame this man? I have my doubts.

Everyone also does such a good job in this movie. The actress who plays Rachel is a standout for me, as well as Chalamet himself. I’ve always thought Chalamet is such a good actor and tends to pick good projects, even if something like Dune doesn’t portray his full range.

I say go see this one if you haven’t already. This is one of those movies that’s meant to be experienced in theaters, not read about on the Internet!

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