Watching a table tennis championship can be as boring as watching paint dry (and a killer for your neck…). On the other hand, being in the audience at a violent MMA fight can be a traumatic experience, but never a boring one.
Two recently released films, arriving in the
middle of Hollywood’s awards season, prove that what is one thing in real life
can become its complete opposite on screen.
The most curious aspect of this contrast is that
the films I’m referring to were directed by members of the same family.
The Smashing
Machine, about real-life MMA fighter Mark Kerr and starring Dwayne
Johnson, was written, directed, produced, and edited by Benny Safdie, an
American filmmaker and actor best known for his collaborations with his older
brother, Josh, on Heaven Knows What
(2014), Good Time (2017), and Uncut Gems (2019). In my humble opinion,
however, the film suffers from a poorly conceived script, weak scenes and
dialogue, and exhausting camera work, resulting in a boring and ultimately
pointless film.
Marty
Supreme, loosely based on the life of legendary Jewish-American table
tennis player Marty Reisman, was directed by Josh Safdie (Benny’s brother) and
co-written with longtime collaborator Ronald Bronstein. The film stars Timothée
Chalamet as a daring table tennis player in search of glory. It boasts an
excellent script, strong pacing, intense scenes, sharp dialogue, and exquisite
art direction, resulting in a frenetic, wildly entertaining film, one of the
best of the season.
Truth be told, both Dwayne Johnson in The Smashing Machine and Timothée Chalamet
in Marty Supreme deliver superb,
award-worthy performances.
But Marty
Supreme held a particularly pleasant surprise for me.
In the film, Timothée Chalamet looks exactly
like my father did when he was young. The story is set during the years when my
father, Moysés, was in his twenties, the same age as the character in the film.
Like Marty, my father struggled desperately to
find his place in the sun in the fiercely competitive world of Brazilian radio,
trying to become a radio soap opera writer, when radio was the top media outlet
in Brazil.
Of course, my old man wasn’t a scoundrel or as
unhinged as the character in the film, but he was also a poor young Jewish man
fighting against what often felt like insurmountable obstacles.
In real life, Marty Reisman, who inspired the
film, won more than 22 major titles. My father, meanwhile, between the ages of
22 and 23, won the award for Best Brazilian Radio Soap Opera Writer in two
consecutive years -- 1954 and 1955.
Another wonderful aspect of the film is how
Marty reminded me of another Brazilian character I deeply admire: Macunaíma,
the Hero Without Any Character. Created by Mário de Andrade in his 1928
novel and later brought to the screen by Joaquim Pedro de Andrade in the 1960s,
Macunaíma embodies, anthologically, the shameless, cunning spirit of the
Brazilian man.
A review of Marty
Supreme by Variety journalist Peter Debruge, published on December 1,
could just as easily be describing Paulo José in the title role of Macunaíma (1969):
“Built like a two-by-four with acne scars, freckles and a pencil
mustache, Marty Mauser is simultaneously blessed and cursed with absurd
quantities of unearned self-confidence. The movies have rarely given us such an
entitled underdog, and it’s both mesmerizing and maddening to watch this
arrogant table-tennis prodigy ricochet from high to low for nearly two and a
half hours.”
Having said all that, I can only recommend that everyone watch Marty Supreme. You’ll have a lot of fun.
Marty & Moyses
