Can Timothée Chalamet's new film Marty Supreme be the Karate Kid of table tennis?

Yahoo

20 hours ago

It's fair to say table tennis movies are rare in Hollywood. But with Timothée Chalamet starring in Marty Supreme, there's a new chance for the sport to thrive.
Timothée Chalamet plays table tennis now. His latest film is Marty Supreme, which is a loose biopic of American champion player Marty Reisman. It's directed by one of the Safdie brothers, Josh, so this could be Uncut Gems meets Balls of Fury — the mash-up we've all been waiting for.
It's fair to say table tennis hasn't always been seen as the most cinematic of sports, but A24's film looks primed for an awards season run. If Chalamet serves table tennis all the way to the Oscars, there will be a lot more eyes on it than ever before. Could this trigger an explosion of popularity in the sport, as Drive to Survive did for Formula One?
The most famous example of this phenomenon is, perhaps, The Karate Kid. When that movie landed in cinemas in 1984 and became a beloved classic, it triggered a huge rise in the number of Americans pursuing martial arts. By the end of the 20th century, the number of martial arts students in the US under the age of 12 was growing by 15% each year. It's fair to say there has never been a table tennis movie of such prominence — with apologies to the aforementioned Balls of Fury.
Table tennis has cropped up on the big screen occasionally, with Tom Hanks playing the sport to American hero status in a memorable sequence from Forrest Gump. Eagle-eyed table tennis fans will notice that film showcases Forrest moving from a traditional western "shake-hands" grip to the "penhold" grip favoured by many Chinese players. It's a neat Easter egg for devotees of the sport, who rarely get to see it on screen.
It's even more uncommon to see table tennis truly take centre stage, as it does in Marty Supreme — especially with a star as shiny as Chalamet doling out the topspin. The question is whether the movie's journey through the box office will encourage people to pick up a bat in the real world and head down to their local leisure centre for a game or two.
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"He's one of the biggest actors in the world, so I'm pretty sure people will want to go and see it," says Liam Pitchford — a four-time Team GB Olympian and Commonwealth gold medallist in the sport. "I hope it portrays table tennis in a good way. We've kind of been in the shadows as a sport and everyone thinks they can play table tennis, so people don't really understand how hard it is. I'd like to think it can bring a bit of much-needed good publicity to table tennis."
Pitchford says that, although table tennis is huge in Asia, it has struggled to get a foothold in the West — something a film of this size might be able to help with. "I believe table tennis needs to be big in America for it to be a bit more in the public eye and hopefully this can help with that. Hopefully people watch it and think they want to give table tennis a go."
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Robert Ridge — a Table Tennis England level three head coach — agrees that the film could encourage people to give the sport a try for real. "I think many people will find the film fascinating and be able to relate to their personal experiences of playing the game at school, home or holiday," he says.
Chalamet, for his part, refused to cut corners and spent months training alongside some of today's most prominent table tennis stars. "He wanted to be like a real [professional] ping pong player when he started shooting," cinematographer Darius Khondji revealed to Variety. He added: "You can do anything, any camera tricks you want, but you need to have a core."
The actor's work might well have paid off. Ridge says: "There have been very few films which have involved table tennis over the years, such as Forrest Gump. But [Marty Supreme] does seem to have captured the excitement and tactical and technical aspects of the game at that time."
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Safdie's directorial work in the past — usually alongside his brother Benny — has traded in claustrophobia and anxiety. That's something that lends itself very nicely to table tennis, with action focused on an often tiny table in an enormous sports arena. It's both gargantuan and intimate, which feels like the perfect canvas for a high-stress Safdie story.
Pitchford will certainly be in the audience. "I know a couple of people that actually got cameos, so I'll definitely be watching," he says. "I think as a sport we need to grow and this is an opportunity, with a big star cast like they've got. It will be fun to watch."
There is a little bit of bad news for table tennis fans after all this, though. According to Khondji, "the movie is about everything but ping pong". Well, that's the equivalent of a mishit serve straight into the net.
Marty Supreme will be released into UK cinemas on 26 December.