Marty Supreme is a bad movie. Nevertheless, it has a baffling 94 percent favorable rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a lot of Oscar Buzz. It stars Timothee Chalamet. It is contrived, mediocre, and annoying.
Chalamet plays Marty Mauser, a 23-year-old shoe salesman in 1952 New York whose entire driving force is an ambition to become the world’s greatest table-tennis player. He dominates players in New York, but the real goal is to win the championship tournaments in London and Tokyo.
Marty Supreme revolves around the escapades of Marty trying to scrape together enough money to make these trips. To that end, he is willing to do anything, and the nearly three-hour film is composed of all the ridiculous and unbelievable obstacles put in his way. It’s as if in writing the script, two 10-year-olds looked at each other and said, “Hey! He’s a guy who loves ping-pong! But he doesn’t have any money! So he caves through the floor of a hotel! Then robs a gangster! Who owns a dog! Then he meets an actress!”
It’s just one ridiculous battle after another. As played by Chalamet, Marty is like Ben Shapiro with ADHD and a lower voice.
Marty Mauser is not a good person. He robs the shoe store where he works—a store owned by his uncle, no less—at gunpoint. It’s the same store where he impregnates a young married woman. Staying at a fleabag hotel, he causes an accident that seriously hurts another man, then loses the man’s dog, and then causes the death of the man who finds the dog. Marty insults the memory of a man who fought in World War II and does so while sitting face-to-face with the man’s father. He meets a famous actress, who is also married. He sleeps with her and steals from her to fund his trip.
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