Marty Supreme (Daniel Lopatin)

What is it?

Marty Supreme is the latest outing from director Joshua Safdie (without his brother Benny this time), starring Timothée Chalamet as post-war table tennis guru Marty Reisman and his attempts to rise in the sport against financial and social odds – certainly the most physical and present role Chalamet has inhabited up to this point.

As usual in Safdie films, it’s a story that uses Murphy’s law (everything that can go wrong, will go wrong) as narrative catalyst in order to concoct an energetic, almost corporeal sense of stress and unease, including machine gun-rapid dialogue. The latter aspect has a piercing, aggravating quality, but is counterweighed by lush, grainy cinematography and tight, musical editing to create a totally absorbing universe. Marty becomes a ping pong ball himself, as he’s torn between his own ambitions and both benefactors and antagonists alike.

Daniel Lopatin (b. 1982), also known as Oneohtrix Point Never, once again provides the music for a Safdie film. And once again, he provides one of the best electronic scores of the year.

How is it?

Lopatin has always nurtured his own interpretation of the old analogue/new digital mix. He’s never succumbed entirely to pop-ified synthwave, but flirted with off-shoot genres like vaporwave, hypnagogic pop and oodles of references to old synth pioneers. In Good Time (2017), for example, there were a number of Berlin School sequencers in the style of Tangerine Dream, in Uncut Gems (2019) there were direct references to Vangelis (the track «The Ballad of Howing Bling» is an ode to the Greek composer’s «Ballad»).

The same is definitely true for Marty Supreme, which is beautifully curated across 47 solid minutes. Berlin School sequencers are easily discerned in tracks like «The Call», «The Necklace» or «The Real Game», while Vangelis’ triumphant Chariots of Fire chords make an appearance in «Marty’s Dream». These two major influences are mixed with other references – 80s sports movie tropes, similarly to what Matthew Margeson did in Eddie the Eagle (2015) in tracks like «Hoffs», or noir-ish jazz elements with pronounced saxophone («Fucking Mensch», «Rockwell Ink») which are the only musical elements that link it to its era. It is of course totally anachronistic otherwise, which again gives the film a universal, time-crossing quality.

Perhaps the most interesting musical idea is how the score mixes the external with the internal: The external challenges and events – usually the more ostinato-driven tracks – that shape Marty’s destiny, are counterpointed by more internal ruminations with dreamy chord modulations, perhaps even human voices like in «I Love You, Tokyo». For a film that relies so much on high-energy dialogue, these cues provide a rare glimpse into the internal turmoil of Marty’s character, his ups and downs.

In a year with several great retro-electronic scores, Marty Supreme seems to reign supreme (pun intended) with its more complex juxtaposition of catchy references. The Safdie-Lopatin connection continues to be an unbreakable stamp of quality.