Don Reviews "Marty Supreme"

Did you know that the summit of Mount Everest is actually only about the size of two table tennis (or ping-pong) tables put together? (Sounds random, but I am going somewhere with this.)  I have tried to play table tennis a number of times but cannot improve at it.  Don’t get me wrong: it is a sport that I respect, especially given that it is used at the Olympic Summer Games.  There have even been many films that feature it like Forest Gump or Balls of Fury.  Adding to that list now is Jos Safdie’s Marty Supreme.

Loosely based on the young adult life of Marty Reisman (Timothée Chalamet, whose last name is Mauser here), a post-World War II hustler who has no direction in life but has an incredible ability to play table tennis.  The only thing he really wants is to win the world championship, no matter what the cost.  Using everyone in his path (and vice versa in some cases), he is determined to get what he wants.

So, let’s get into the positives: the acting.  I will make what could be a safe prediction here: there will be nominations for Chalamet with a great chance he will win the Academy Award for Best Actor.  His performance here is off the chart, putting so much into this role that for the last six years, he spent training in whenever he could for this role, including other film sets he was working on.  He perfects this role of a self-centered jerk who is willing to sacrifice anything and anyone for his goals, like Holden Caufield in “The Catcher in the Rye”.  I was also surprised by the role of Kevin O’Leary from Shark Tank, whose performance reminded me of the person we all know from that show, and it made me wonder if he was actually acting.

Now to the negatives: this film is WAY TOO LONG at two and a half hours.  Almost half of this film could have been cut with a plot that is boring and just not engaging.  In fact, the trailer is very deceiving, showing a guy with the odds against him who wants to prove the world wrong and succeed in life through table tennis when in fact, it is story of a guy who squanders a gift.  Just like in another film from this year in After the Hunt, this is nothing short of awards bait for Chalamet. There is great acting from the cast, but the rest of the film is mindless and pointless with a terrible ending that mad me wonder what the point of the whole thing was.  I will NEVER watch Marty Supreme ever again and there is a great chance this film might make my end of the year list of worst films.