Out of its secret screening at New York Movie Pageant, Josh Safdie’s Marty Supreme instantly started gaining award season buzz. And why not?
Is there an actor alive pushing tougher for an Oscar than Timothée Chalamet? At 29 years previous, the New York thespian has been twice nominated for Finest Actor, first for the swooning queer drama Name Me By Your Identify after which once more for his function within the critically heralded Bob Dylan biopic A Full Unknown. And whereas campaigning for that latter efficiency, he collected a slew of awards and dedicated the arguably cringe fake pas of admitting he needed the Oscar. How dare somebody admit their ambition?!
With Marty Supreme, Chalamet tries a brand new tack by roughing up his fairly boy face with prosthetic pockmarks and pimples. Look to Nicole Kidman in The Hours or Brendan Fraser with The Whale or Heath Ledger with The Joker — outstanding bodily transformations can repay huge. They typically break the spell of the godly film star to permit an actor to play somebody much less glamorous, much less idealized, and even downright despicable. In Marty Supreme, Chalamet’s beauty would make it too simple to fall for the prattle of his eponymous anti-hero. However a fleet of blemishes and a squirmy mustache manages to rework this world-famous native New Yorker into a real New York character. And thank God.
Lengthy after the Oscars have been handed out and the fanfare has died down, Marty Supreme will likely be remembered as one of many supreme New York films. Exploding with chaos, character, and kinetic vitality, Marty Supreme is a film concerning the metropolis’s scoundrels, their sins, and why we love them anyway.
Marty Supreme is Uncut Gems’ pesky sibling image.
Credit score: A24
After the huge success of Josh and Benny Safdie’s Uncut Gems, the brothers parted methods to discover unbiased ventures, each of which concerned sports activities films. Benny teamed up with Dwayne Johnson for The Smashing Machine, an earnest however underwhelming drama about MMA fighter Mark Kerr. Josh discovered inspiration within the story of desk tennis champion Marty Reisman, reimagining him as a Scorsese-like punk named Marty Mauser.
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Performed by Chalamet, Marty is a legend in his personal thoughts, assured to carry the artwork of ping-pong to the plenty. He simply must pay his method to the championship abroad first. And he’ll do something to get the scratch for that airplane ticket. He’ll casually — however not coolly — pull a gun on a co-worker at a claustrophobic shoe retailer. He’ll seduce cash out of the has-been film star (Gwyneth Paltrow) who crosses his path, or pitch his childhood good friend Rachel (Odessa A’zion) right into a ransom scheme involving the bellowing canine of a glowering gangster (famous NYC filmmaker Abel Ferrara). Marty’s huge desires demand huge dangers, and he would not care who’s taking them.
Timothée Chalamet is f***ing spectacular in Marty Supreme.
Credit score: A24
Removed from the cool gangsters of Goodfellas and even the intimidating Travis Bickle of Taxi Driver, wiry and sharp-tongued Marty has extra of an After Hours vitality. He is the type of New York eccentric who’s equal components mesmerizing and worsening, virtually levitating with vitality, moxie, and utter bullshit.
It is easy to see the connective tissue between Adam Sandler’s Howard Ratner and Chalamet’s Marty. Each are lower from the identical material of survival with panache and loads of nervousness. Removed from a clean-cut sportsman, Marty is perpetually ruffled, at all times on the run, and at all times working his mouth. And that signifies that Chalamet’s efficiency is much less a marathon and extra a dance-a-thon. There is a fixed demand for him to play the facade of Marty’s confidence, whereas dripping within the creeping pressure that point for turning into the world champ is working out.
This desperation grows so intense you’ll be able to virtually scent the sweat accumulating on that greasy little mustache. But, when Chalamet flashes a smile and lays into his lovers or haters with that follow patter, it is exhausting to withstand him. If Marty have been a flawless fairly boy, it’d perhaps be too exhausting to tug off, however the masterful make-up and styling by Safdie’s crew tough up this world-famous Chanel model ambassador excellent. Chalamet turns into an everyman with an outsized ego that would shade the Chrysler Constructing. It is a bootleg thrill to look at Marty connive, insult, seduce, and steal, an all-American scoundrel on the high of his recreation on the desk and off. Although when enjoying ping-pong, there’s an exuberance in Chalamet that’s contagious. Imagine it or not, you will get sucked into these adrenaline-fueled video games of desk tennis.
Marty Supreme has a elegant ensemble forged.
Credit score: A24
Chalamet will lead the Oscar dialog round Safdie’s newest, however there’s loads of reward to go round. Safdie and co-writer Ronald Bronstein’s screenplay — regardless of some heavy-handed sentimentality at its bookends — is ruthlessly witty and exhilaratingly racy. The rating by Warp Information artist Daniel Lopatin (who additionally supplied the sweaty soundtrack for the Safdies’ nerve-wringing Good Time) is well anachronistic. Whereas the film is ready within the Nineteen Fifties, the rating is loaded with synth and percussion that feels extra attuned to ’80s sports activities films like Rocky or The Karate Child. Together with including a pulse-pounding vitality to Marty Supreme, this rating additionally means that its wild anti-hero is maybe a person earlier than his time.
Bolstering Chalamet’s daring strikes are an ensemble that’s sensational, respiratory life into the broader world of Marty Supreme‘s New York. Paltrow swans about with the untouchable grace of Manhattan’s posh elite. A’Zion sizzles with blue-collar intercourse enchantment and righteous wrath. With a winsome vitality, Tyler Okonma (aka Tyler, The Creator) performs the proper foil to Marty, as a good friend and fellow ping-pong participant, whereas Géza Röhrig gives jolting calm with a sensational monologue. Abel Ferrara, whose look drew cheers from the NYFF viewers, brings scorching menace as an area robust man. And the checklist goes on with Fran Drescher, Penn Jillette, Sandra Bernhard, and Isaac Mizrahi popping as much as broaden the richness of Marty’s realm.
This zinging dialogue, racing rating, and electrical forged collide to create cinema that celebrates New York, whereas recognizing its warts with a bleeding grin. All of this makes Marty Supreme an uncommon crowdpleaser. Full of untamed humor and stunning turns, it has its viewers in a chokehold of pressure and shock, hardly ever letting up for us to breathe. And but, what a thrill to be breathless.
Marty Supreme was reviewed out of the 2025 New York Movie Pageant. It opens on Dec. 25.
