Movie Number 6 of 2026
The Movie: Marty Supreme
The Cinema: Hoyts Victoria Gardens
Runtime: Two hours 35 minutes
Stars: 3.75
I've spent the last day trying to work out if I liked this Marty Supreme film. Is that acting good? Yes, very. Is the direction and script good? Yes. What about the filming? Well, I've got some issues there, but what pissed me off also made it effective. Can I see why this is one of the darlings of the awards circuit. Absolutely.
But I haven't reacted well to this film. It's a conundrum.
The story is loosely based on the life of Marty Reisman (1930–2012), a flamboyant American table tennis champion and famous "hustler" known for his showmanship, skill, and traditional hardbat style in the 1940s and 50s according to Wikipedia.
In Marty Supreme, we meet Marty Mauser (Timothee Chalamet) at the start of the film working in his uncle's shoe shop in what looks suspiciously like the Hell's Kitchen area of New York in the early 1950s. A smart arse, able to think on his feet, Marty is a hustler. He's having an affair with his neighbour, Rachel (Odessa A'zion) and he's trying to get himself over to London for the World Table Tennis Association's championship. Table tennis, at the time was not a huge sport and he had to self-fund - which is where Marty's hustling skills come into view - and stay there for the next two and a half hours.
And here's part of the reason I've not given this film four stars. Even though this comes across as a big shaggy dog story, a dark almost tragi-comedy, I spent a lot of the film wanting to punch Marty in the nose. The words 'narcissist' and 'arsehole' come to mind, which is probably testament to Chalamet's skill as an actor and writer/director Josh Safdie's work in bringing this obnoxious bloke to life.
There are some great cameos in the film as well. Gwyneth Paltrow as a bored, unfulfilled actress married to a millionaire (Kevin O'Leary). Geza Rohrig (If you know, you know) is great as Marty's early ping pong partner. Fran Drescher is great as Marty's long-suffering mother
The other main character is the seedy side of 1950's New York. It's bleak, dirty, run down and violent, filled with people scrambling to get ahead.
My biggest issue with the film is the cinematography. I found Darius Khondji's camerawork left me with motion sickness. There's a lot of walk and talk camera action with this film, the frenetic movement parallels with Marty's antics. I get why it has been filmed like this, but over two and a half hours, it was a bit much.
Marty Supreme has been nominated for nine Oscars, including Best Actor, Best Director, Best Film, Best Cinematography and Best Original Screenplay.
It is a good film - for me, I couldn't quite get over the unlikeable main character - even if I was cheering him on at the very end.
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