PREMISE
Marty Mauser, a young table tennis player with a dream that nobody respects, goes to hell and back in pursuit of greatness.
THE GOOD STUFF
TIMOTHEE- About halfway through this film, I was taken aback by how thoroughly dislikable his character, Marty Mauser, seemed. He is the archetypal, overwhelmingly young, cocky guy who’s a genius at what he does, but who alienates and/or deceives everybody in his life in the pursuit of greatness. We’ve seen this type of character before. However, I also came to realize that this is a Safdie Brothers film (I know only Josh Safdie directs it, but the stylings of this film are identical to those of previous things he’s co-directed with his brother). And once I came to realize that, I realized that none of the leading characters in any of their films are meant to be dislikeable… they’re just disastrous human beings. There is a difference. A self-destructive person is likable. I found myself disappointed in this character after he boisterously made horrible decision after horrible decision. But for every stupid and horrible decision He makes, he’ll make an overwhelming gesture of humanity that gets you right back in the fray with him.
Chalamet is all gusto here. He is 100 mph at all times, and over the two-and-a-half-hour runtime, he runs the whole gamut of human emotion. He is all at once moving, frustrating, hilarious, and engaging. Is this the surefire Oscar-winning performance that so many media pundits predicted it to be? I don’t know. But this is a lock for an Oscar nomination. An absolute lock.
KEVIN O’LEARY- One thing I’ve always admired about the Safdie Brothers is that they are not afraid to have a “what the f*** is THIS guy doing here” supporting performance from a person you do not know from acting whatsoever. That person turns out to perform REALLY well (Ryan Bader in THE SMASHING MACHINE, Kevin Garnett in UNCUT GEMS, Benny Safdie in GOOD TIME). As with O’Leary, the brothers understand that casting these people is about giving them roles that are not too far from who they are, possibly.
I would like to think that Kevin O’Leary isn’t nearly as much of the slime ball as he portrays in this movie (or in the SHARK TANK television show) as he is in real life. However, the performance here is so good that he has to be channeling it from somewhere. He is very much the film’s final boss. The singular person holding back Marty from his dreams the most. And O’Leary holds it down. Every time he’s on screen, you want to slap the s*** out of him. And I know that’s precisely what the film was aiming for.
THE 3RD ACT- 2025 has been a year of films that have had trouble landing the plane. There are so many Oscar season films with excellent first and second acts that ultimately have either an unsatisfying ending (Bugonia, WICKED: FOR GOOD) or an ending that tides you over but could have been much better. (One Battle After Another, SENTIMENTAL VALUE) The third act of this movie is genuinely moving stuff. And the last shot of the film is the perfect way to end things.
THE BAD STUFF
THE RUNNING TIME- This is a two and a half hour movie that could have really been an hour and 45 minutes to 2 hours. There’s a subplot involving a kidnapped dog, and there’s a subplot involving Marty’s many hustles to try and make money that you really could have shown in a montage. The film bounces back and forth between the main story, in which Marty tries to get to a table tennis tournament in Japan after an embarrassing loss to the world champion, and these subplots, which take up a lot of screen time. The subplot involving the kidnapped dog especially derails the pacing of the rest of the movie, leading to a shootout scene that just didn’t need to exist in this movie.
TYLER, THE CREATOR- I’m not saying that he’s a bad actor. In fact, he has a lot of chemistry with Chalamet in their scenes. The main problem is that this is a movie set in the 1950s… And Tyler is very much playing a person in 2025. I’m a big fan of Tyler, the Creator. A really big one. I’ve seen interviews with this man recently, and I’ve been to his concerts. The man who addresses his audiences between his songs at his shows is very much the man he portrays in this film. This could have been done by an actor who would have embodied the time period a bit more, and it would have added more to this film.
THE UGLY STUFF
I guess nothing. There are no outright irredeemable things here. Just a bunch of annoying stuff that didn’t need to be there.
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Boy, has there been hype for this particular Chalamet performance that seemed completely unwarranted. As far back as October, those media pundits who cover award season from top to bottom couldn’t help but tell you that this particular performance was a shoo-in for an Oscar win. As someone who follows the award season hullabaloo year after year, I was pretty exhausted of hearing how excellent this performance was going to be. And well…. It doesn’t disappoint. As I’ve said in past reviews of movies starring Timothee Chalamet, it does not shock me when he does excellent things such as this. We are past the point of hype train bull**** when it comes to him, and we are in the realm of him being a justifiable leading man in whatever he decides to do. There are so many erratic elements in this movie that the pacing would be off-putting to some. This is a Safdie Brothers-styled film through and through, so it is gonna be a required taste for pretty much everybody. Is it the best Safdie film ever? No. But it’s close…and a lot of credit for that goes to Timothee Chalamet
MARTY SUPREME is in theaters now
