It’s always intriguing when a pair of creative artists go their separate ways and we get to see what each individual brought to the table all along. The Coen Brothers split up and Ethan Coen made a series of quirky crime comedies, while Joel made an arthouse adaptation of William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” which suggests the different parts they played in bringing “Barton Fink” and “The Big Lebowski” to life. Producers Menahem Golan and his cousin, Yoram Globus, broke up and they each immediately made movies about the sexy Brazilian dance, the lambada, both of which came out the same day. One of those lambada movies ended with a math competition, so I guess whoever made that film was the high-falutin’ part of the duo.
Josh and Benny Safdie may be one of the most interesting examples, since the writer/directors of “Good Time” and “Uncut Gems” both made a solo film this year — and both are period piece dramas about a brand new sport that was on the verge of international popularity. Both films have flawed American protagonists trying to make it big in Japan. But Benny Safdie’s “The Smashing Machine” was a mild-mannered, weirdly sedate biopic about mixed martial arts, and it had a meaningful point, while Josh Safdie’s “Marty Supreme” is a panic-attack ping-pong movie that ends with a cloying and almost completely unsatisfying mixed message.
Combine both films and you’d have something special, but taken separately, “The Smashing Machine” and “Marty Supreme” are lacking … in very different ways.
Timothée Chalamet — still brilliant in everything — plays the heck out of “Marty Supreme’s” protagonist, Marty Mauser, who impregnates his girlfriend, steals his uncle’s money and travels to an international table tennis tournament in England in the 1950s, where he scams his way into an expensive hotel and seduces a former movie star, Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow). That Marty is a good ping-pong player is almost besides the point. He’s very good, actually. He’s just not good enough to win the tournament, which kicks his dreams of becoming a wealthy, famous world champion to the curb.
The rest of “Marty Supreme” takes place months later, as Marty returns home and all his uppance comes out of the woodwork, all at once. His ex-girlfriend Rachel (Odessa A’zion) is in a family way, and in an abusive marriage, and now Marty’s dragging her along on his money-making schemes. His uncle wants his damn cash back and, if that’s not possible, demands that Marty give up his dreams and work at his shoe shop. The table tennis organization wants Marty to pay top dollar to pay for his shenanigans in England. And he still has to make enough money to play ping-pong at the next national tournament in Japan, so he can finally prove he’s worth a damn.
The problem, which Marty cannot see for the life of him, is that Marty isn’t worth a damn. At worst, he might consider himself a rogue or a rascal, some type of anti-hero whose pluck compensates for his character deficiencies. But neither Marty nor “Marty Supreme” ever acknowledges that he’s a monster and that he destroys almost every life he touches. There’s no rational world in which Marty deserves to achieve his goals; he’s not even putting in the work at the ping-pong table. He expects to win a rematch against his greatest rival without training or studying or doing any self-improvement of any kind. Even the one moment where his ego takes a few literal hard knocks doesn’t make a lasting impression. He’s back on his B.S. a day later.
Josh Safdie does a fine job of making us feel Marty’s pressures, and as he tightens a noose around his own neck we can’t help but share Marty’s anxiety. But the film doesn’t have the same cynical bite as “Uncut Gems,” which was infinitely more breathless and pointed, and had a great ending. As a sports drama, “Marty Supreme” comes up even shorter, because it has no idea how to conclude while saying something — anything — about Marty, his journey or anything else.
“Marty Supreme” neither comprehends nor conveys why, exactly, what qualities make Marty so good at ping-pong or why, when faced with a superior opponent, he fails. This is a story of aspiration without, again, any effort towards achieving those goals beyond making money, so when Marty’s improvement manifests anyway — in the form of ping-pong, at any rate — it’s arbitrary and unconvincing. There’s no dramatic throughline that tracks, just desperation and an incongruous conclusion that doesn’t organically follow that despair.
In the place of a coherent sports narrative, all we have instead is what Marty represents. He says it himself: He represents America, a country where cocky selfishness is rewarded and nobody has to learn anything in order to succeed. All we need is a chance to prove ourselves. The American ego, “Marty Supreme” suggests, is our true greatness. So our actual ability is incidental, and any collateral damage in our pursuit of fortune and glory is forgivable. We are but lumbering beasts wrecking everything we touch, but if we’re good at what we do, or if we just get lucky (since there’s no evidence to suggest Marty actually has what it takes), nobody will care. The ends justify the means, and if the ends aren’t good enough, we’ll whine until we get our way anyhow.
This may be exactly what Safdie is getting at, but if so, what he’s getting at is sophomoric. It’s shallow self-congratulation for American moxie at the expense of everyone and everything around us. It observes the destruction in Marty’s wake and shrugs, not because it’s actually sympathetic, but because we’re supposed to be won over by his all-American gumption in spite of his carnage. That the film doesn’t reckon with any of the reasons the audience would reject Marty, and also reject his story’s finale, could be confused for challenging. But instead it comes across as myopic.
Josh Safdie’s “Marty Supreme” is paced like lightning. Benny Safdie’s “The Smashing Machine” lumbers in comparison, but it has heart, intelligence and a point that the story actually supported. Any or all of which would have dramatically improved “Marty Supreme.” The Safdies split up and they each made half a great sports movie. If only we didn’t have to watch them separately.
“Marty Supreme” hits theaters on Christmas Day.
