Josh Safdie’s new film “Marty Supreme” is an ambitious mix between absurd comedy and intense sports drama. Quite willing to go all the way along with its increasingly obnoxious and incorrigible hero during its rather long running time (150 minutes), the movie bounces from one tense moment to another without any excuse or compromise, and we are all the more captivated even though we wince more than once for good reasons.  

The story, which is mainly set in New York City, 1952, is about Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet), a young aspiring table tennis player quite determined to win the title of the world of champion again in the upcoming world competition to be held in London. However, he needs some money to buy an airplane ticket right now, but his uncle, for whom Mauser works at a local shoe store, is not so willing to give the money, and Mauser is not someone who easily gives up. In the end, he virtually steals the money from his uncle’s safe, while not thinking at all about the consequence of his action.

That is just the beginning of many recklessly thoughtless actions of this very unlikable lad, who is constantly driven by the idea of becoming the No.1 player in the world again without any consideration on others around him. For example, Mauser is having an affair with a married woman who was a childhood friend of his, but it is clear that he does not care that much about her except when he wants to have some fun with her. In case of his aging mother, he does not give a damn about her either, and, considering that his mother is no better than him, we can only guess how problematic their relationship has been. 

Anyway, Mauser eventually comes to London for participating in the world competition, and he continues to behave like your average jerk. He remains rude and arrogant to anyone around him, and he surely enjoys all the attention upon him when he is about to have the final match with an unexpected challenger from Japan. However, when this Japanese dude beats him in the end, he becomes quite, uh, emotional, and that certainly does not leave a good impression on those influential figures in the International Table Tennis Association.       

Needless to say, Mauser becomes determined to beat his opponent in the next time, but the chance to go to Tokyo for the next world competition seems to be out of reach for him. Nobody is willing to sponsor him as he has already manipulated or insulted too many people around him, and things get more complicated for him when it turns out that his married lover has been pregnant because of him.    

Nevertheless, Mauser still thinks only about going to the next world competition, and the screenplay by Safdie and his co-writer/co-producer/co-editor Ronald Bronstein generates a lot of exasperating fun from how pathetically self-serving its hero can be. Relentlessly and ruthlessly trying to get enough money for his goal here or there, he unwisely causes a lot of damage or annoyance to several people who unfortunately get themselves associated with him, and that certainly leads to more and more troubles for him.   

He does not hesitate at all when he sees a slim but possible chance via a certain wealthy business and his actress wife, who incidentally had a little affair with him when he was in London. Although he initially rejected the offer from that rich businessman, Mauser later came to change his mind, and he surely shows his potential sponsor and his wife that he is willing to do *anything* for getting what he wants so desperately and intensely.

This bumpy quest of his is definitely not something you can casually watch, but the movie keeps us engaged thanks to Safdie’s skillful direction. He and his crew members including cinematographer Darius Khondji and production designer Jack Fisk did a splendid job of bringing a lot of intensity and verisimilitude to the screen, and we get immersed more into the increasingly messy circumstance surrounding its hero, even while observing him from the distance with more disgust and annoyance. In case of those key table tennis match scenes, they are quite effective thanks to Safdie and Bronstein’s dexterous editing, and the resulting intensity is all the more amplified by the electronic score by Daniel Lopatin, which imbues the cold and aggressive ambiance to Mauser’s troubling quest instead of merely glorifying it. 

As the electrifying center of the movie, Timothée Chalamet, who has quickly risen as one of the most promising actors in Hollywood since his Oscar-nominated breakthrough turn in James Ivory’s “Call Me by Your Name” (2017), gives a totally uncompromising performance which surely deserves a recent Oscar nomination (The movie received the total 9 nominations including the ones for Best Picture and Best Director, by the way). Never making any excuse on his truly deplorable character, his strong acting keeps things rolling on full-throttle mode to the end, and you may have some relief when his character eventually arrives at the end of the story, though the last scene somehow takes me back to that famous line in Orson Welles’ great film “Citizen Kane” (1941): “If it was anybody else, I’d say what’s going to happen to you would be a lesson to you. Only you’re going to need more than one lesson. And you’re going to get more than one lesson.”

Around Chalamet, Safdie assembles a bunch of various performers here and there. While Gwyneth Paltrow and Odessa A’zion ably hold each own small place, Kevin O’Leary, Tyler Okonma, Fran Drescher, Géza Röhrig, Sandra Bernhard, and David Mamet are well-cast in their respective supporting parts, and the special mention goes to Abel Ferrera, who brings a little but surprising amount of extra intensity later in the story.

On the whole, “Marty Supreme” supremely works as a fascinating examination on male arrogance and toxic masculinity, which has incidentally been the undeniable origin of many social/political problems in our world. Yes, you may wonder whether you need to watch another case of male arrogance and toxic masculinity even though we have suffered many detestable male politicians and billionaires out there during last several decades, but the movie and Chalamet will captivate you from the beginning, and you will also get some lesson on a certain type of person you should stay away from at any chance.