As a self-proclaimed movie connoisseur, Marty Supreme is a must-watch. It’s stressful in the same way as reaching the top of a rollercoaster before the drop – intense, but exciting – as if you’re actually living through the screen. I was quite literally on the edge of my seat.
Director and writer John Safdie brings his audience in through powerful visuals that represent the post-war 1950s era. For example, one scene depicts Bela Kletzy, one of Marty’s competitors and a friend, recounting his experience as a Holocaust survivor. Including scenes and themes of the Holocaust really added to the true nature of the film. It brought a lot of representation through the rise of a Jewish American like Marty to fame. As someone who knows little to nothing about table tennis or World War II, I was able to not only enjoy this film but also learn lots from it.
A24’s character choice was remarkable. Drawing in many household names like Gwyneth Paltrow, Timothée Chalamet, Odessa A’zion, Tyler, the Creator, Milton Rockwell, Fran Drescher, and many more native New York actors.
The smaller characters are what made a large difference to me. After watching the film, I saw a video online about the inclusion of the side characters and their significance in New York, which I found super interesting. Like Luke Mantly, who played Dion Galanis, one of Marty’s friends and business associates. Luke rose to fame after a clip of him being interviewed after a Knicks game dissing Trae Young went viral.
The actors meshed well together regardless of their differences in prior work. While the entirety of the cast seems random when put together, the collaboration and the way they all work add to the quality of the film nicely.
Timothée Chalamet and A24 also planned their press tour in a very unprecedented way. They created a jacket that was seen on very influential people in pop culture like Tom Brady, Bill Nye, Kylie and Kendall Jenner, Kid Cudi, Frank Ocean, Hailey and Justin Bieber, and Steph Curry. The film was also released on Christmas Day, like a gift to the world.
They also created made a blimp with the design of the ping pong balls in the movie and flew it over Camp Flog Gnaw, A three-day festival in Los Angeles curated by Tyler, the Creator. Overall, the hype this press tour brought lived up to the film perfectly.
The inclusion of all these important people in the press tour, as well as the casting, really added to the quality of the film and allowed the watcher to really recognize and relate to it, as the actors are from films watched by all generations.
One critique I would make is maybe adding in a final scene with Gwyneth Paltrow or Tyler, the Creator. While I enjoyed how they came in and out of the storyline, I thought that since they had a large impact on the film, they should have more of a resolution.
Overall, I really enjoyed Marty Supreme. The way the directors brought so many characters into the film and made Marty’s dreams seem so far and so close at times really brought me along on the adventure. I also thought all the obscure and troublesome challenges that got in his way were super funny and interesting. There’s not a single character or moment I think could’ve been removed, as every moment featured led up to his mission to succeed.
