The glut of sports biopics continues with Timothée Chalamet picking up the bat as table tennis champion Marty Reisman, concentrating on his time in New York in the 1950’s. Josh Safdie, who co-wrote the screenplay with Ronald Bronstein and directed this chaotic movie, has admitted that it is only loosely based on Reisman’s life, but I do not expect there are too many aficionados of the game who would object.
Safdie’s last film was the brilliant Uncut Gems in 2019, and he is going for the same breathless, helter skelter vibe here. For much of the running time, Reisman desperately tries to get the cash together to be able to travel to the world championships in Tokyo. At various times he is evading the police, a group of thugs he has hustled money from and the husband of the woman, Rachel (Odessa A’zion), he has made pregnant. But, whilst Safdie is an accomplished director, there is not the same manic intensity as in Uncut Gems. There is also not the stakes, as I really did not care if the self obsessed Marty makes the championships or how he does there.
Chalamet is probably the biggest movie star in the western world right now, and he will likely be going head to head with Leonardo Di Caprio for the best actor Oscar in a couple of months. I have been sceptical in the past but I think he brings a nervous energy to the part and it is his best performance. Having said that, I found A’zion, Gwyneth Paltrow as the fading movie star who Marty has sex with and the veteran director Abel Ferrara as a vicious mobster who makes the mistake of entrusting his dog to Marty, were the better performers.
There is plenty here that is entertaining, but the story lurches all over the place. There seems to be an increasing tendency for critics, especially American ones, to fawn over over-long, rambling movies, and Marty Supreme falls into that category.
Rating: 6.5 out of 10