Marty Supreme hereby completes the trilogy of movies starring Timothée Chalamet I’ve written about so far, in this order: Dune, A Complete Unknown, and now Marty Supreme. I was looking forward to watching Marty Supreme just as much as his earlier films, and I was worried my high expectations might dull the experience. Instead, I was surprised by how much fun I had watching it.
What impressed me most – apart from everything else that works so well (inc. performances, production, and cinematography) – is how unpredictable it is. Nearly every scene (bar one) goes somewhere you don’t quite expect. It’s a total blast, and there were moments where I felt genuinely giddy, waiting to see what would happen next. And the ending is so sublime and unexpected – true to its modus operandi – yet heart-wrenching, that it makes everything that came before it make sense.
Marty Supreme is set in the 1950s and follows Jewish-American table tennis player Marty Mauser, loosely based on Marty Reisman, in his quest to become world champion. As a sports nut – and someone who represented my high school in table tennis – the subject matter instantly piqued my interest. Ironically, the one scene that felt laboured was the table tennis tournament in England. Aside from that, I was hooked, laughing out loud often, hopefully not to the annoyance of nearby viewers.
The film is humorously dark, sometimes violent, and wildly irregular. In its chaos, I found it oddly realistic, often mirroring how life itself can feel – driven by chance, but not entirely random. Small changes can lead to wildly different outcomes, making long-term prediction impossible. Our actions clearly have consequences, and that plays out here, but exactly what those consequences will be is never certain. That uncertainty is central to Marty Supreme.
The movie is packed with confronting moments and will likely offend some viewers. It doesn’t follow, or even lean on, the familiar formulas that most films do. It’s an epic character study of a morally flawed yet insanely talented individual who will stop at nothing to get what he wants – very much in the vein of character-driven films like There Will Be Blood and Citizen Kane.
I want to single out two standout performances, aside from Timothée Chalamet. Both Gwyneth Paltrow and Odessa A’zion are excellent, especially A’zion (image inset), who plays Marty’s fiercely intelligent, emotionally complex, and strategically manipulative childhood friend and love interest. She has immense screen presence, and I found myself fully investing in her. Weirdly, she reminded me lot of seeing Amy Winehouse if she had ever acted. As for Paltrow, in her role as an aging movie star, I don’t think I’ve seen her this good since The Royal Tenenbaums.
I’ve deliberately stayed away from spoilers, because this film is best experienced knowing as little as possible. I genuinely hope Timothée Chalamet receives his first Oscar for Best Actor. He’s easily my favourite young actor working right now – there isn’t even a close second – and has been since Dune. It goes without saying, I couldn’t recommend Marty Supreme more highly. If you’ve seen it, I’d love to hear what you thought.
Cheerio, and thanks for reading.
- Timothée Chalamet had been training in table tennis since 2018 to prepare for his role. He continued his training while working on other films… by traveling with a table.
- Make-up artist Michael Fontaine applied pockmarks, freckles and nicks to Timothée Chalamet’s face to give him a more weathered, street appearance. The effect was so convincing that Gwyneth Paltrow thought it was real, privately suggesting to the actor that he try micro-needling to fix his acne scars.
- At the beginning of the movie, during the first two rounds of the tournament, Marty competes against real-life Olympic table tennis players: American Nikhil Gowda (as Nikhil Kumar) and German Timo Boll.
- Gwyneth Paltrow told Vanity Fair that when she met Timothée Chalamet, who she was going to film several sex scenes with, she joked, “Okay, great. I’m 109 years old. You’re 14.”
References:
1. Marty Supreme – Wikipedia
2. Marty Supreme – IMDB
“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand
Observation Blogger 
I have not seen this yet but I will definitely look out for it. The only Timothee Chalamet movie I’ve seen is “The King”, which my son recommended to me, & as an English major who focused on Shakespeare & Renaissance literature, I wouldn’t have missed it anyway. I have yet to see the Dune movies. The Dune novels were massively popular when I was a kid in the 60s & 70s.
He’s also so very easy on the eyes. Ya know?
I hadn’t heard of ‘the King’. What did you think of it? I’m surprised you didn’t see his portrayal as Dylan in ‘A Complete Unknown’considering your penchant for Dylan’s music. I am in awe of the Dune movies, yet I still haven’t read the books – but I hope to one day.
Chalamet is very charismatic and has such amazing screen presence. The young actress Odessa A’zion really did it for me in this movie. She was like a Amy Winehouse, ya know – peculiarly adorable.
I haven’t seen “A Complete Unknown” yet. It’s on my list ~ a VERY long list.
“The King” is based on several plays in what’s called the “Henriad” ~ Richard II, Henry IV, parts one & two (those parts are separate plays) & Henry V. Chalamet plays Prince Hal, who becomes Henry V. It’s a great part ~ showing how a young partier becomes a responsible adult & astute politician & a great warrior.
Like all of us who were partiers when we were young, Hal loses friends when he becomes a responsible person.
I love Shakespeare. I’ll watch any movie that’s Shakespearian. I especially love mise en scene movies ~ the ones that set the drama in another time or place. “Men of Respect” is a good example of that.
I’m afraid I’m not in the least bit knowledgeable about Shakespeare, and that probably has a lot to do with my schooling.
I was placed in Intermediate English, and only the Advanced classes studied Shakespeare. That kind of segmentation, in and of itself, really pissed me off.
Even so, on the few occasions I’ve tried to take Shakespeare in—whether reading or hearing it—it’s never really resonated with me. That may be as much about my lack of exposure as anything else. I dunno.
Thanks for filling me in on your background and your love for Shakespeare. Most of it went over my head due to my complete ignorance of his work.
I was always in the advanced classes. Which worked with English & History & languages, which I liked, & music, of course. Math & science was a bit harder, because I really didn’t care about that stuff when I was a kid. Now I love science ~ at least biology & botany ~ & when I went back to college, I had to retake algebra & trig ~ which came back to me pretty easily ~ I thought the equations were like fun puzzles with numbers.
I had Shakespeare all through high school I don’t know how it works now but back in the day, you learned Julius Ceasar in 9th grade, Romeo & Juliet in 10th grade, MacBeth in 11th grade & Hamlet in 12th grade.
When I first went to college in 1978-79, I didn’t take any Shakespeare. & I dropped out after that year. I went back in 1984 & took several classes of poetry. I went to community college in 1998 & got a paralegal degree. I’ve always loved law. I dated one of my professors ~ he was a lawyer ~ & I gave him a bunch of my poetry & he said that I should go back to university & get my English degree. That writing was what I should do. Also ~ I knew law but I really didn’t have the personality to work in a law office ~ which is true ~ I’m really good at office work ~ organized, good with computer programs, etc ~ but I hated wearing office clothes & I hated the long hours. I always preferred working in bars or diners or being a performer.
I went back to university in 2008 & that’s when I really got into studying Shakespeare. The professor with whom I studied was maybe 15 years older than me & she was an old-time feminist & we hit it off right away. I took every class she taught.
When my son went to UB, he took a lot of Shakespeare classes, too. She loved him as well, although he studied with a few other teachers.
Wow, I’m really rambling. Sorry.
When I was finishing high school and needed top grades in English just to be considered for what is arguably the most reputable institution in Australia – ADFA – my English teacher, Mrs Descent, went out of her way to help me. Unbeknown to me at the time, she wrote a letter on my behalf to the military about how highly she rated me. And by golly, she lived up to what her surname implied – I had more than a bit of a crush. I’m confident that without her letter, I wouldn’t have scraped in.
I did well in Maths, finishing in the top 5% of the state, and I was the only person in my class to pass Physics. I also topped Legal Studies, and I still have the photo from the award ceremony. So yeh, we shared that interest in ‘law’.
I envy that you had such an extensive Shakespearean learning experience – how wonderful. I can see how your artistic inklings shone through and how you were drawn down that path. I’m glad you connected with your feminist teacher who inspired you so deeply.
And don’t worry about the rambling — that’s something I enjoy doing too. I’m glad you share them with me here. I like reading them.