“Marty Supreme” gives polarized results
When watching the first 30 minutes of “Marty Supreme”, you may get deja vu and start to think that this is just another “Whiplash” retelling, however, it is quite the opposite. The film follows an ambitious table tennis player, Marty Mauser, played by Timothee Chalamet, who is fixated on achieving greatness, no matter what or who is in his way.
I appreciated how Josh Safdie, director of “Marty Supreme,” frames Chalamet’s character not as a moral inspiration, but as a symbol of desperation and pure, vibrant ambition. As expected, the high-stress atmosphere never faltered throughout the film, often including jerky and shaky perspectives from the camera, mirroring Marty’s consciousness.
The film offers a number of unique themes and messages, however, the motif of the ping pong ball caught my eye. In the beginning of the film, after Marty and his girlfriend, Rachel Mizler, played by Odessa A’zion, have an encounter, we are shown that he has impregnated her and an image of a white ping pong ball morphs onto the screen. It is then mentioned again when Marty is talking to his boss about selling orange ping pong balls to be able to see better when playing.
It caught me by surprise, considering the orange ones were barely used throughout but seem to be prominent in the marketing campaign. However, it seems the transition between the two colors represents Marty’s development, the orange representing him being flashier and arrogant up until the end, when he meets his son. Marty seems to overcome these flaws when he beats his rival, Koto Endo, played by Koto Kawaguchi, while playing with a white ball.
The casting was incredibly well done. I appreciate how the character archetypes are shown in the cast list. Marty is played by Chalamet, a driven young man who is known for saying “I want to be one of the greats; I’m inspired by the greats,” after accepting an award for “A Complete Unknown”. Kawaguchi is a deaf table tennis player who made his actorial debut in “Marty Supreme” as a humble and calm figure, clearly juxtaposing Marty.
The marketing for the film was very strategic. The trailers framed “Marty Supreme” as a film about an underdog, but once you’re in the theater, you realize that you are not supposed to root for him. In the end, I was hoping he would win just so he would stop ruining the lives of the unfortunate souls that he happened to encounter.
The thematic aspects of “Marty Supreme” offered refreshing and nuanced insight into a genre that seems to have been done a thousand times before. However, although I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, I did not appreciate being stressed for two and a half hours straight.
