Timothée Chalamet achieves greatness with Marty Supreme – a frantic New York odyssey wrapped up in a ping pong sports movie

Earlier this year, Timothée Chalamet ruffled some feathers by announcing in front of a room full of his peers at the SAG Awards, that he was in "pursuit of greatness". For some, it was a moment of refreshing honesty: don't we all want to do something worthwhile with our time on Earth? Especially if we have the talent to back it up. These words could have come straight from the mouth of Marty Mauser, the cocksure ping pong champ that Chalamet brings to the screen with electrifying magnetism in Marty Supreme.

In fact, if you've been anywhere near social media in the last couple of months, you've probably already had a taste of Mauser's brash confidence thanks to Chalamet's unconventional publicity campaign for the film. Typically flanked by several people with "hardcore orange" spheres on their heads, and wearing Mauser-esque glasses, Chalamet has been talking up his "really top-of-the-line performances" over the last 7-8 years, declaring Marty Surpeme specifically "top-level shit."

There's a fascinating blurring of the lines between character and performer going on here because, like Chalamet, Marty Supreme has the ability to back up his self-aggrandizing statements. American ping pong's(!) blazing young star, Mauser ruffles institutional feathers by charging expensive rooms to the league, while putting on an unmissable show that draws in the crowds. That is, until he loses to a Japanese underdog with a new type of paddle – a shame that he hopes to rectify with a rematch.

Back in the game

That brief precis probably makes Marty Surpreme sound like more of a sports movie than it actually is. Set in 1950s New York, ping pong bookends the movie, but the mid-section is something else entirely. Much closer to a frantic 70s-era drama, and very much in keeping with the Safdie Brothers' agonisingly tense oeuvre (though Josh directs solo here, while Benny went off to make The Smashing Machine), it's a film about a resourceful schemer who's been dealt a bad hand skirting the law to claw back what he thinks he's owed.

One of Mauser's strangest money spinners involves a failed attempt to extort a dangerous gangster (played by Bad Lieutenant director Abel Ferrara) over the return of his dog, barely 24 hours after Mauser almost crushes both of them when he, and the bathtub he's sitting in, fall through the ceiling of a decrepit motel. From the moment Mauser arrives back on US soil after a humiliating world tour where he performs pleasant ping pong tricks for family audiences, everything goes wrong – a spiral of disasters that take Mauser further and further away from his dreams.

In the middle of it all, Mauser manages to become involved with a faded Hollywood star, Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow, sporting a spot-on British accent). Stuck in a dead-end marriage to a pen magnate (played with reptilian menace by Kevin O'Leary), Stone is won over by Mauser's unassailable confidence as an escape from her husband, even if Mauser's bulletproof self-regard frequently tips over into arrogance. Outside of the MCU and Ryan Murphy projects, Paltrow hasn't appeared on screen since 2015's risible Mortdecai, but in just a handful of scenes, she reminds you why she was one of the 90s most in-demand stars.

Rule the world

Similarly beguiling is Odessa A'zion as Rachel. The Until Dawn star is a constant as Marty's chaotic love interest, who's looking for a way out of her loveless marriage to Ira (Emory Cohen). They're a perfect match – Rachel is as much of a schemer as Marty, and even more determined to find a way out of her hopeless situation. In a way, the film is a stealth love story, albeit one that opens with a microscopic view of Marty's sperm swimming to victory, soundtracked rousingly by Tears For Fears' 'Everybody Wants to Rule the World.'

But this is the Timmy show, and after nearly going all the way with his transformative performance as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown, there's a very real chance that Chalamet will be holding a golden baldie aloft come mid-March. Chalamet learned to play ping pong to an impressively convincing standard as Mauser, and even though it's far from the focus of the film, when Chalamet has a paddle in his hand, Marty Supreme taps into the pulse-quickening thrills of a Rocky or a Rudy.

There's something undeniably invigorating about Marty Supreme. While there's a familiarity to its atmosphere and worldview – more so than The Smashing Machine, it's a continuation of the Safdie project, including esoteric casting choices, spiralling madness and lots of scenes featuring sweaty lowlifes shouting at each other about money – watching Chalamet dominate the screen is akin to watching a young Pacino. Chalamet is no longer in pursuit of greatness, he's already there.

Marty Supreme releases in theaters on December 25. For more on what to watch, check out the rest of our Big Screen Spotlight series.