WHEN does a ping pong player go to sleep?
Around Tennish.
Ba dum tss! I know, don’t give up the day job, right?
Which brings us to Marty Supreme, a film about a shoe salesman who dreams of chucking it all in to become a champion table-tennis player. In fairness, we’ve had Hollywood movies about boxing, American football, horse racing, Formula One, figure skating, even pool, so why not table tennis?
Look out tiddlywinks, your time to shine is coming.
A movie about table tennis wouldn’t be so objectionable per se, if the protagonist wasn’t such an obnoxious and egotistical little turd. Marty Mauser, “a young man with a dream no one respects, goes to hell and back in pursuit of greatness”, according to the good people at A24 film company, that is.
In reality, he’s just a nasty narcissist that is impossible to root for. I was hoping the whole way through that he would get his comeuppance.
Mauser, played by the brilliant Timothée Chalamet, is a hustler, a leech that takes from all around him without a second thought, all to achieve greatness while putting ping-pong on the map. The fact Chalamet’s character is so loathsome took the good out of this over-hyped Hollywood fare – readymade for Oscar season – for this cantankerous old hack.
Give me the slow-witted and kind-hearted Rocky Balboa any day, a fiercely loyal underdog with a strong moral compass and the determination to persevere and win. Mauser is so conceited that he even makes Happy Gilmore’s smug golfing villain Shooter McGavin seem like an all-round decent chap.
Marty Supreme is overrated, too bloody long, and comes with a main character that I couldn’t wait to see the back of.
(3/5)