Leave it to Josh Safdie to make an anxiety-ridden film about ping pong.

That’s not a complaint, by the way.  Both with his brother Benny and working solo on this film, Josh Safdie has proven himself to be a master at making anxiety compelling.  Much more so than Benny’s 20205 offering, The Smashing Machine, Josh’s Marty Supreme keeps you off-balance.  Marty Supreme may be set in the 50s but it’s deliberately shot in the gritty style of 70s-era Scorese and Lumet.  Meanwhile, the background music is largely made up of classic songs from the 80s.  Timothee Chalamet may play the title role of Marty Mauser, a shoe salesman who also happens to be a ping pong champion.  And the film may also feature recognizable actors like Odessa A’Zion, Gwyneth Paltrow, Fran Drescher, and Emory Cohen (remember him?).   But the majority of the cast is made up of people best-known for not being actors.  Shark Tank co-host and aspiring lead of Canada Kevin O’Leary plays Paltrow’s husband and Marty’s occasional sponsor.  Director Abel Ferrara plays a gangster who is searching for his dog.  Penn Jillette plays a New Jersey farmer who shoots first and asks questions later.  David Mamet, Isaac Mizrahi, early internet sensation Ted Williams, former New York mayoral candidateJ ohn Catsimatidis, rapper Tyler The Creator, and performance artist Sandra Bernhard all show up in small roles, creating a very New York atmosphere that somehow feels both familiar and artificial.  Watching the movie is like living the tourist’s dream of traveling to New York, seeing your favorite Manhattan celebrities hanging out in Brooklyn, and then having them curse you out for owing them money.

As is to be expected from a Safdie film, Marty Mauser is not always a sympathetic protagonist.  He’s been having an affair with the married Rachel (Odessa A’Zion) but, even after he finds out that Rachel is pregnant, that doesn’t stop him from having a purely sexual relationship with former actress Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow), the wife of businessman Milton Rockwell (Kevin O’Leary).  Marty thinks that he’s the world’s best ping pong player, which is why he has a hard time accepting being humiliated at the hands of Japan’s champion, Endo (Koto Kawaguchi).  Marty’s efforts to return to Japan for a rematch lead to an at times dizzying array of complications.  Marty is the type who will steal his lover’s necklace just to return it and apologize after learning that it was only worth two bucks because it was costume jewelry.  Fortunately, Marty is played by Timothee Chalamet, who gives such an energetic and charismatic performance that it’s hard not to be charmed by the character even while his actions might upset, annoy, or even offend you.  The film never claims that Marty is the best ping pong player in the world.  Only Marty claims that.  Instead, the film shows just how unshakeable Marty’s belief in himself is.  It’s hard not to like someone who refuses to accept defeat.

In many ways, Marty is a quintessential American figure.  He believes in himself and he’s not going to apologize for it.  Both the character and the film celebrate the individualism that make America unique.  That 50s setting really does make sense.  Marty truly is the post-war American, dedicated and unapologetic.  And, in that context, the film’s “stunt” casting, for lack of a better description, makes sense as well.  David Mamet, Kevin O’Leary, Penn Jillette, Abel Ferrara, John Catsimatidis, and so many of the other familiar faces that float through Marty Supreme: they’re all people who have gone their own way, even at the risk of alienating the establishment.

Marty Supreme was nominated for 9 Oscars but failed to win any of them.  Indeed, the amount of negative stories that were breathlessly reported about the film’s director and lead actor after the nominations were announced indicates that there was an organized whisper campaign against the film.  (In a sad sign of the time, there was a good deal of negative backlash online from the dishrag brigade, who were upset that the film’s lead character was Jewish.)  Despite being the best of the nominated films, Marty Supreme lost to One Battle After Another.