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?
- External Walls: Up to €8,000 Grant
- Attic: Up to €1,500 Grant
- Cavity Walls: Up to €1,700 Grant
- Internal Dry Lining: Up to €4,500 Grant
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)