The Jewish Details in Timothée Chalamet’s New Film ‘Marty Supreme’ Are So Good

Chalamet stars as a fictional version of Marty Reisman, one of the best table tennis players of all time

by Lior

(Kveller) – “Marty Supreme,” Josh Safdie’s upcoming film, is inspired by a real-life Jewish legend, Marty Reisman, the Jewish American athlete who revolutionized table tennis.

Reisman was the winner of 22 table tennis titles, including five bronze medals at the World Table Tennis Championships, two U.S. Open titles and one British Open title. His Upper West Side table tennis gyms were frequented by the likes of Matthew Broderick, Dustin Hoffman, Kurt Vonnegut, David Mamet and Bobby Fischer. He is, to this day, considered to be one of the best table tennis players of all time.

Timothée Chalamet, who has already amassed a bunch of critical roles playing young Jewish men, from the fictional Elio in “Call Me by Your Name” to a slightly fictionalized version of Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown,” looks like he’s about to be the star of next year’s award season one again, thanks to this role.

He is charming, quirky, infuriating and somehow still emotionally evocative as the fictionalized Marty Mauser in the newly released trailer of the film, which shows Marty playing table tennis with incredible gusto (do I… like table tennis?), falling in love (or at least, in lust), counting dollar bills in yellow cabs, throwing tantrums, jumping over walls while evading the police and also possible gunfire? Oh, he also travels across the world to Africa and Japan in pursuit of being the best table tennis player in history.

Watching “Uncut Gems” is the closest I’ve felt to riding a roller coaster while at the cinema, and it looks like this movie — which was co-written by “Uncut Gems” co-writer Ronald Bronstein — will also make viewers’ heads spin.

But it’s not Marty who I want to talk about after seeing the trailer (though, again, this looks like it could be Chalamet’s best role yet) — it’s all the incredible Jewish tidbits of this trailer that I just can’t get over.

Click here to continue reading this Kveller article by Lior Zaltzman.