Marty Supreme

Not exactly a bio-pic but a sensationalized story based loosely on American table tennis player Marty Reisman, this Timothée Chalamet vehicle is two hours of screaming and chaos. Nearly every scene is tense and uncomfortable.

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Table tennis actually plays a small role. It’s more about a low-life individual who is trying to get through life on pure confidence, and who, by any means necessary, is determined to prove that he is the world’s best ping pong player.

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In addition to gritty sets, colloquial language, hairstyles and clothing, the creators of this film used cameras and camera techniques of the 1950s to further get across that era. But the music, incongruently, is mostly 80s hits like The Perfect Kiss from New Order and Everybody Wants to Rule the World from Tears for Fears.  The music is pretty jarring.

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I didn’t enjoy this. Marty is made out to be a train-wreck of a person who lies, steals, seduces married people, and tries to manipulate everyone around him to help him reach his goals. Why are we making movies about people like this? 

Beyond that, the acting is not at all nuanced. Mr. Chalamet just power-houses his way through this.

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That said, much of the viewing public doesn’t share my opinion. This movie grossed nearly three times what was spent on it, received nine nominations at the 98th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and eleven nominations from the British Academy Film Awards, including Best Film.

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