MARTY SUPREME: Having the Courage to Face Yourself …

Marty Mauser (AKA Marty Supreme) is so desperate to prove himself that he’ll do anything to win. Anything. Steal. Scam. Hustle. Hurt the people who believe in him and love him the most. He’s frantic, reckless, and only thinks of himself. Being the champion is all Marty cares about. When you feel lower than low, sometimes you’ve “gotta go high.” But. Sometimes that means: arrogance. Marty has arrogance par excellence. It’s his major defining feature. But. He alienates people. Gets himself in trouble. And, he almost gets Rachel, the woman he loves, killed. In the end, what’s Marty Supreme’s biggest win? Coming down to earth and facing himself. Will it stick?

Marty Steals. Scams. Hustles. To Win 

Marty - Mauser – Supreme – will use anyone to feel big. He’s desperate to rise above his lot in life, still living with his mom, employed at his uncle’s shoe store, feeling put down low. He’s talented at table tennis, that’s for sure. And he has aspirations. He will be the world champion. It just takes money to get there. That’s where the hustle comes in. And, anyway, it’s not all about talent that makes you feel good. Sometimes, when you have no real confidence, you gotta go higher than high. That can make you arrogant. Sometimes, you have to prove yourself by showing other people up. That can make you mean. That can make you care less about who you take down, so that you feel like the better one.

He's a smart guy, Marty Supreme (Timothee Chalamet). Watch him as the fast-talking (not wanna be) shoe salesman. He can sell anybody, anything, everyone “loves him,” and his uncle/boss, Murray (Larry ‘Ratso” Sloman) wants to make him Manager. Marty doesn’t want the job. Being a shoe salesman is beneath him. Watch how he’s sold himself to Dion Galanis (Luke Manley) and his dad, Christopher (John Catsimatidis). He gets their financial backing. They want to believe in him. Dion even creates his very own, orange Marty Supreme ping-pong ball. They see his talent. That’s real. But Marty’s fast-talking seduction, surprisingly, works for him. That is, until it crashes.

For a while, he can’t stop. His desperation to win big in the international tournaments really revs him up. Watch how he lures the washed-up, older, married-to-a-wealthy man, unhappy actress, Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow) into his orbit. She’s as desperate as he is to be wanted. He goes so far as stealing her necklace (not the diamonds he thinks), while they’re having sex in a shower. She’s onto him. But she so needs reassurance that she’s still desirable, she can’t get enough of Marty. And, at the same time, he’s wooing her wealthy husband as another way to get to Tokyo.

Hurting People Who Believe in Him 

Oh, Marty Supreme. He’s so high on himself that he thinks anything goes. He sees no way that he won’t get away with it all. In fact, most often, he doesn’t even seem aware he’s doing anything wrong. And, he’s more blind with Rachel (Odessa A’zion) than anywhere else, his childhood friend since they were 8 years old. Rachel will do anything for him. Cheats on her husband, Ira, to be with Marty, her real love. Gets pregnant. Marty denies that the baby is his. Rachel is still loyal. How does he do it? From the outside, he’s not really that appealing. Yet, he wins over the poor people in his circle. Who feed off his false self-assurance and want it for their own. Who think that maybe, just maybe, they’ll get a piece of the pie in one way or another. For Dion, some purpose in life. Kay Stone, some reassurance that she hasn’t lost her sex appeal. And, Wally (Tyler, the Creator), his taxi-cab-driver family man, most loyal friend? His promised cut of the proceeds.

Well, delusionally believing you deserve to be on top when you aren’t, doesn’t always work out so well. Marty takes it one step too far with Mr. Ram Sithi (Pico Iyer), the haughty head of the International Table Tennis Association, who isn’t one to be hustled or scammed. After confronting Mr. Sithi about the shabby accommodations at a London Tournament, Marty books himself into the Royal Suite at the Ritz and racks up a $1,500 bill to show Sithi up. He’s shocked when the bill arrives and, now, he has that to pay off, along with the money he needs for Tokyo.

Wait. The Tokyo Tournament is crème de la crème. He must go. He must win. Desperate to get the money (now $1500 in the hole), Marty drags Wally and Rachel into his schemes. He doesn’t care about anyone but himself, hurting the ones who believe in him with his reckless arrogance.

Marty’s Reckless Arrogance

If he doesn’t win, it would be the end of Marty Supreme. It would be his ultimate humiliation. He’s already sung his own praises throughout the entire film: “Life magazine is gonna cover it. Look Magazine’s gonna cover it. They have to. Editor of Look Magazine? He loves me. They all love me. I’m uniquely positioned to be the face of the entire sport in the United States.” Marty’s imperious. He’s offensive. He demands to stay where the officials are staying at the Ritz. He’s arrogant. He’s grandiose. He’s delusional. Yes. He is talented. But. He’s vile - to get his way.

When Marty doesn’t, things get totally crazy in Marty Supreme, if they weren’t crazy enough. He’s desperate. He steals the money his uncle refuses to pay him by holding a fellow employee up at gunpoint to make him open the safe. Flashing his “Marty Mauser, Manager,” card. When his uncle tries to “teach him a lesson” by getting his cop-friend involved, Marty escapes down the fire escape with the satchel filled with money. He runs past the cop car as fast as he can, away from the trap of his uncle and his life. “It’s every man for himself where I come from,” Marty says.

Yeah. That’s the only “philosophy” Marty has, to rise out of the humiliation of his tenement life. And humiliation is something that Marty cannot stomach. Instead, it’s what he inflicts on others.

He drags an ambivalent Wally, his ultimate scamming sidekick, into a new scheme after Wally rescues him from a dumpster that he dives into to hide. He’s covered in discarded Chinese food with the stench to prove it. Desperate for a shower, they rent a $2 dive room in a seedy hotel. Marty ignores the warning not to use the bathtub, and he ends up in the bathroom of the room below his. His tub falls on a dog named Moses and the arm of a dog-loving gangster named Ezra (Abel Ferrara), who now has a severely broken arm. Ezra needs to go to the hospital, but is worried about his dog. Yet. Never mind the $50 (for Marty) + $50 that Ezra offers Marty to take his beloved dog to the vet. Who cares about whether poor Moses is ok? Marty ditches the dog and takes off with the money. He doesn’t bother to think that Ezra might have a gun. Or, that next to Ezra, Marty’s scamming is small potatoes.

No. Marty’s as high as high can be for a while.

He and Wally go off to create another table tennis scam at a bowling alley. Gotta make more money for Japan! They play “against” each other, pretending they don’t know each other. Yet, all Marty does with his hustles is to get himself into big trouble, and Wally, too. They fight. Wally crashes his cab as they try to escape some angry losers they tricked. “Thank you so much,” a blasé Marty Supreme tells Wally: “Don’t be mad. I’m going to get you a new cab. (Sure). I love you.”

As if that makes what he’s done A-OK.  And. It’s not over yet.

Rachel (scheming too) needs help.

Almost Getting Rachel Killed

Rachel is 8 months pregnant, and Marty’s still denying that the baby is his. She has a black eye, says her husband hit her (turns out it’s a lie), and that she has no place to stay. The baby is Marty’s, and she wants to be with him. Yes, Rachel is quite the match for Marty. She will scam, lie, and do anything it takes to get what she wants. But, after all, she’s been his best friend (and true love) since childhood. He’s as loyal as (as Rachel calls him) “any narcissistic piece of shit” can be. And. That’s not so loyal. Yet, he does beat up the unsuspecting Ira. Makes the pushover Dion, who still idolizes him, give Rachel a room and feed her while his parents are away. And. True to form, Marty Supreme takes no responsibility. On top of all this? Well, that’s not the end of it.

After all, Marty Supreme still doesn’t have enough money to get to Tokyo. And, he has to beat the Japanese player, Endo (Koto Kawaguchi), who humiliated him by making him a first-time “loser.” So, he steals Dion’s dad’s car and gets Rachel to come with him to look for Ezra’s dog. They find the dog at an antisemite’s house, and the man tries to kill the Jewish Marty with a gun.

Rachel frantically yells for Marty to get in the car. But Marty wants the dog. He has a new scheme to get $2000 from Ezra, not considering that Ezra’s also capable of murder. No. Marty can’t think anything out or consider anyone’s safety; all he wants is what he wants. Rachel drives the car into the man. They narrowly escape. As they do, Marty tells her he’s in no position to settle down, but as her friend, he’ll help her find a good maternity home and a good family. She flatly refuses. He coldly tells her, “Go home.” She won’t and tries to get the $2000 from Ezra for a dog that isn’t his. Ezra isn’t dumb and figures it out. Before she can run, Ezra shoots Rachel, and she goes into labor. That’s what love does to Rachel. But Marty has no love for anyone but himself. Not yet.

Desperate to get to Tokyo, Marty drops Rachel off at a hospital, in a rush to take off for his big win. Rachel, terrified, pleads for him not to leave her now. She’s done everything she can for him, everything. Even risked her life. And what does he do in her time of need? He abandons her.

Marty’s Real Win? It’s Facing Himself

But how will Marty get to Tokyo? In one more humiliation, worse than lowering himself to comedic bits during halftime for the Harlem Globetrotters, he agrees to a promotional game with Endo in Tokyo to promote Rockwell pens, Kay Stone’s husband’s company. How else can he hitch a ride to Tokyo but on a private jet? What’s even worse? He has to agree to lose again to Endo.

That’s way beyond mortifying. Marty intended to beat Endo for the championship. Remember? Endo’s the only player he’s ever lost to. And, losing to Endo brought him down more than a couple of pegs. Shame.  Humiliation. Those are not feelings that Marty Supreme Mauser can tolerate.

So, finally, in Tokyo, Marty will give it one last shot. He apologizes to Mr. Sethi (even though he doesn’t really mean it, does he?) But Mr. Sethi makes it very clear that he’s “not going to tear up the entire scheduling for one entitled American… you have wasted your time coming here.”

Now, Marty’s stuck with just Rockwell’s Endo stunt. Endo says he doesn’t want to embarrass Marty again. Marty says, “I’m beyond embarrassment.” Endo agrees to the match. If the loser kisses a pig. This is a bit much. But. The wheels are turning in Marty’s mind. This time for the good. He plays Rockwell’s game. Then, Marty does a really surprising thing. He decides it’s all not worth it. Not his scams. Hustles. Tricks. Arrogance. None of it. And.  He forfeits Rockwell’s payout.

Marty wants to play the game for real. Rise above his old ways. Stop humiliating himself. No, it’s not the official Tokyo table tennis championship game. But. He plays his best game. And. He legitimately beats the cheating Endo, cheered on by American soldiers. With no seat on Rockwell’s plane, he flies home on an Army plane and goes straight to the hospital and Rachel.

Best of all? Marty Supreme transcends his arrogance. Will it last? Who knows? But. Right now, he humbles himself. Faces himself. Lives in reality. Accepts responsibility. Comforts Rachel: “I’m here. I’m here. I won’t leave you. I’m here.” He cries when he sees his newborn son in the nursery. Real tears. Touched by awe. Happiness. But, also, regret. Sadness for his old, misguided self. Will this be a new beginning? Learning to love and be a father? Is that in the cards for Marty Supreme?