Hooooo boy. This film starring Timothée Chalamet is intense! At the end - after 2.5 hours no less - I felt like I could finally unclench my teeth.
Marty Supreme is set in the 1950s with Chalamet as Marty Mauser, an arrogant, annoying, relentless, calculating, lying young table tennis prodigy trying to break through to the top of the professional scene. I found him thoroughly unlikeable. Often characters like this are pitched comfortably in ‘sure he’s annoying but you can’t help but get behind an underdog’ territory but I personally was never really rooting for him. That said, I was invested in the story and absolutely engaged right to the end to see his fate. I don’t think I was rooting for him to *not* make it but nor was I on his side. Wherever your land on that spectrum, it’s hard to not be completely intrigued by how this story ends. Will this scheming little twerp be victorious?! Yes, I wanted to know.
The story is convoluted in some ways which explains the 2.5 hour length. There’s a through line about a dog which adds drama and tension but to my mind, chopping that would have been a simple way to drop the run time down by the 30 minutes (more, even) that I reckon it needs.
Gwyneth Paltrow plays … well, I won’t say too much as the role her character plays has an interesting intersection with Marty’s story that I think it’s good to discover as you watch the film. She’s luminous and it’s great to see her back on the big screen.
This film’s out at this time of year because it’s excellent and featuring prominently in award season buzz. I really enjoyed it but perhaps not as much as the Oscars judging panel seem to! There’s a 3.5 star review in the Fairfax press here if you’d like to read more. I reckon I’d give it about 3.5 too.
Marty Supreme is rated M, runs 149 minutes and is in cinemas now.