OPINION: In pursuit of greatness

Just a year ago, Gen Z heartthrob Timothée Chalamet starred in “A Complete Unknown,” giving a scruffy, smoky performance as Bob Dylan which gave audiences their first microscope into Chalamet’s commitment to his performances.

Chalamet is no stranger to being a lead by that point; his time on “Call Me by Your Name,” “Dune” and its sequel and “Wonka” proved this. But portraying Dylan, the sort of mysteriously obtuse artist who became more concept than man, was decidedly more difficult. It’s also where Chalamet started building his own mythos.

Last year, while accepting the Best Actor award from the Screen Actors Guild for his performance, Chalamet dropped a line which, for an industry becoming increasingly less focused on movie stars than franchise names, was completely shocking.

“The truth is," Chalamet began, “I’m really in pursuit of greatness. I know people don’t usually talk like that, but I want to be one of the greats.”

This display of ego seemed to be the first step in Chalamet’s 2025, where he would host Saturday Night Live as both host and musical guest (performing some Dylan songs), become increasingly connected to fashion, performed a rap verse on a remix of “4 Raws” and begin the press tour for “Marty Supreme.”

While it’s easy to see “Marty Supreme” as yet another star vehicle for Chalamet, this time around seems different than the glitz and glamour which came from his outing as Dylan.

After all, “Marty Supreme” features the beloved actor knocking up a married woman, seducing an older movie starlet (a different married woman) past her prime just for the sake of appearing as a young sex symbol and gets spanked with a ping pong paddle. (As many news articles have said since, no butt double for Chalamet!)

It’s the type of grimy movie which recalls post-Code era movies like “Taxi Driver” and “Midnight Cowboy,” although the pace of “Marty Supreme” is a bolt of lightning in comparison. Fast-talking Marty Mauser, a ping pong player at a time when table tennis was still a joke game played in bowling alleys, is scheming his way to enough money for flights all over the world to compete.

This is the New York City of 1952, falling apart and filled with grumpy faces and not enough sleep. If you sit wrong in a bathtub, it might collapse through the ceiling. And Marty is carving his own slice of the city. Or at least, that’s the idea of himself he’s trying to sell.

It’s a sales pitch Marty has to present over and over again, not just the idea of table tennis ever being a big event but that Marty is the star of it. To hear him say it, you’d think ping pong was bigger than rock and roll. You might even catch yourself believing him if you’re not careful.

“Marty Supreme” isn’t really a sports movie; it might trick you in the beginning with incredibly well-filmed table tennis matches. But as Marty begins his Odyssean trek across New York City for enough money for a plane ticket to the championship, there’s no mistaking the screwball thriller energy pulsing in the movie’s veins.

Owing to director Josh Safdie, who co-directed other amazing thrillers like “Good Time” and “Uncut Gems,” Marty’s descent into stacking lies and deception, always likely to backfire, turns “Marty Supreme” into the worst nightmare you’ve ever had. It’s a delirious scramble between gas stations, fire escapes and the grimiest apartments New York could gestate.

A few creative touches enrich the experience, such as an anachronistic soundtrack with ‘80s pop and filming the movie with vintage anamorphic lenses. Casting plenty of non-professional actors, including “Shark Tank” businessman Kevin O’Leary as a rich a-hole, lends surprisingly authentic power to their performances.

Marty may be one of the worst human beings on earth. His behavior in interviews is disgustingly provocative, including one eye-popping moment with a quote I’m definitely not allowed to print. Existing as a direct critique on the toxic masculinity in hustle culture by showing as many consequences on innocent people as possible, Marty can’t seem to escape his own ego.

It might be why he’s fascinated with his vision of an orange ping pong ball (besides the opportunity he now has to wear white during matches “like luxury”). For every ball produced, his own brand Marty Supreme will be stamped on that ball. Made in America. A legacy all his own.

Although he’ll never say it out loud, it’s clear Marty’s greatest fear is failure. He’ll lie through his teeth that the idea of failure never reaches his mind, claiming he’ll be a champion and personality bigger than anyone else, but his inability to accept responsibility shows how small he really is.

If the exhilaration of one of 2025’s greatest movies wasn’t enough, “Marty Supreme” accomplishes its character study of a narrative-spinner through Chalamet’s titanic performance. Gen Z’s first real movie star has arrived.

Safdie described “Marty Supreme” in an interview with The Big Picture as watching a portrait of your parents before you were born. If how “Marty Supreme” ends is any indication, than one’s own ego death might come from something incredibly small, crying, even a little chubby but will be undeniably yours, as long as you’re ready to admit it.