Josh Safdie's first solo directorial offering is a powerfully frantic romp through 1950s America that'll have you glued from start to finish
Opening in a bustling shoe shop in New York City, 1952, the scene is instantly set for Josh Safdie's latest offering – the first since he and his co-director brother Benny decided to go their separate ways in 2024. The shots are close, tones earthy, lighting moody and conversation rapid-fire. Based loosely on real-life sportsman and swindler Marty Reisman, the film invites viewers into the world of Marty Mauser, a 23-year-old Jewish Manhattanite who is skinny (Reisman was nicknamed ‘The Needle’ for his slight build), spotty and bespectacled; sporting both a unibrow and thin moustache. His energy is interminably antsy, entitled and, on the whole, entirely unlikeable. Yet, as a viewer, you’re still rooting for him. This is in part down to Safdie and long-term collaborator Ronald Bronstein's quick-witted writing, but there's no denying the huge part played by Timothée Chalamet's jaw-dropping performance. Marty grunts and jitters his way through life, just as he does his matches, and you believe every second of it.
The whole film is a voyeuristic look at our protagonist’s constant search for – and inability to hold onto – cash to fund his calling: table tennis. He’s clearly intelligent and highly talented, but there are two major things standing in his way: a smart mouth and rampant libido. From an urgent fumble in the store room of his uncle's shop, to a piecemeal affair with a retired Hollywood actor (played masterfully by Gwyneth Paltrow) and myriad hustling jobs gone wrong, Marty continues to stumble over his own actions.
Childhood friend and on-and-off lover Rachel Mizler (Odessa A'zion) is wonderfully multilayered. Seemingly fleeing an abusive husband, but remaining headstrong throughout, she never makes a predictable move. Ditto with Bela Kletzki (Géza Röhrig), Marty's softly spoken friend and opponent, who is also a Holocaust survivor. In fact, one of the most powerful moments in the film is the depiction of a story he tells about the war, when he smothered himself in honey from a wild beehive and allowed his campmates to lick it off him for sustenance. Like Marty, he is also based on a real-life player, Polish champion Alojzy Ehrlich.
If you've seen the intense and unnerving Uncut Gems (starring a bolshy Adam Sandler), co-directed by the Safdie Brothers, you'll know what you're in for. Marty Supreme is arguably easier to watch, however, with slightly less yelling. Slightly. And a soundtrack of 1980s hits that drives the action more than a 50s one would. Having said that, everything else is authentically fleshed out, from the characters to the surrounds. Production designer Jack Fisk (There Will Be Blood, Mullholland Drive, The Revenant) has done a stellar job, with an attention to detail that is second to none. You almost feel suffocated as the camera naviagtes the cramped, grimy low-rise tenements of NYC's historic Orchard Street – once known as Little Germany and home to countless Jewish immigrants.
Safdie and Bronstein don't shy away from shocking dialogue either, with antisemitic, racist and bigoted remarks flying freely in what feels an accurate representation of the post-war era. Even from Marty, who stuns a huddle of British reporters when referring to Kletzki: “Look, I'm going to do to Kletzki what Auschwitz couldn't. I'm going to finish the job.”
”That's a bit strong mate,” stutters one of the journalists. “It's alright, I'm Jewish,” Marty smiles, “I can say that.”
Marty Supreme is almost the perfect movie, so close is it to nailing every aspect, but where it lacks is in the narrative department. Its pace is so frantic that at times it’s difficult to follow. One minute Marty’s in London at the start of the British championship; then it’s later in the championship; then he’s back to New York; on tour with the Harlem Globetrotters; back to New York; hustling, grappling and shagging everywhere he goes. It’s become something of a trademark of Safdie’s to forgo any gentle foreplay to ease viewers in, but his rough and ready approach is stylishly visceral and immensely irresistable.
By Danielle Goldstein
Marty Supreme is out in cinemas now and available to stream via Apple TV, Amazon Prime and other services. a24films.com/films/marty-supreme