Here’s a twist — Timothée Chalamet is your next ping-pong wizard. The Oscar-nominated actor appears poised for a return trip to the awards race as the titular Marty Supreme, a ’50s-era sports yarn loosely inspired by real-life table tennis champ Marty Reisman. Funnily enough, it’s one of two sports-world awards hopefuls hailing from A24 this fall — and both are directed by a Safdie brother. Josh Safdie helms Marty Supreme, while Benny Safdie enters the ring with The Smashing Machine, starring Dwayne Johnson as UFC fighter Mark Kerr.
While The Smashing Machine will be making the trip to film festivals — including Venice and Toronto — moviegoers will have to wait a little longer to see Chalamet swing that paddle. Marty Supreme is notably sitting out the festival circuit ahead of its Dec. 25 launch. But the just-released trailer provides a vibrant sense of the movie’s style and tone. Here’s everything you need to know about the first ping pong-adjacent Best Picture hopeful since Forrest Gump.
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What is Marty Supreme about?
While not an official biopic, Marty Supreme does follow the broad strokes of Reisman’s life. An early adapter to the table tennis scene at a time when the emerging sport was popular everywhere but in the U.S., the New York-born athlete won over 20 major titles during his decades-spanning career, including multiple medals at the World Table Tennis Championships. He also showed off his serious athletic skills in a more comic fashion as an opening act for the Harlem Globetrotters — a professional highlight that’s teased in the trailer.
But remember that Chalamet is playing Marty Mauser, not Marty Reisman. Thus, Marty Supreme departs from the historical record in several key ways, starting with Chalamet’s pursuit of a glamorous movie star, played by Gwyneth Paltrow. He cold-calls Paltrow in an early scene in the trailer to pitch himself as someone she should get to know. “I’m something of a performer, too,” he tells her, advising that she check out the latest issue of the Daily Mail.
When he’s not wooing Hollywood icons, Marty is touring the world on his own glorious purpose — bringing ping pong to the masses. But in the words of another Marvel favorite, that great responsibility is accompanied by great sacrifice. Marty’s globetrotting ways take a toll on his relationship with another of his love interests, played by Odessa A’zion. Still, he’s not about to throw in the proverbial towel. “What do you plan to do if this whole dream of yours doesn’t work out?” we hear Paltrow say at one point. “That doesn’t even enter my consciousness,” Marty replies.
Courtesy A24
Who else is in it?
Besides the key three of Chalamet, Paltrow, and A’zion, the movie’s cast includes Kevin O’Leary as Marty’s apparent foil and Fran Drescher as his mother. It’s one of The Nanny star’s most prominent film roles in several years — and will follow her appearance in Spinal Tap II: The End Continues. Legendary New York filmmaker Abel Ferrera is also part of the cast in an unspecified role as are comedian and magician Penn Jillette, actress-comedian Sandra Bernhard and legendary wire walker Philippe Petit.
When can I see it?
General audiences can make Marty Supreme part of their Christmas holiday plans — a release strategy that worked out well for Chalamet’s Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown, last year. Even though the movie won’t be at any of the major festivals, rest assured that critics and awards voters will have seen it in time for their various December deadlines. They may be solo acts for now, but both Safdie brothers are likely to enjoy smashing successes this awards cycle.
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