Marty Supreme: a lot of sound and fury

Poor Johnny Oleksinski of the NY Post and myriad other critics in thinking Josh Sadie's Marty Supreme is the best movie of 2025 - "It’s cinematic Mountain Dew. You’ll be wired for the entire 2½ hours." Not quite. With laurels like this - it has a 95% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes (and admittedly an 83% fan one) - I couldn't wait to run to a theatre to see it. But, alas, disappointment reigns. Okay I'll give the movie props for an exceedingly realistic re-creation of the early 1950s. And undoubtedly star Timothée Chalamet's acting is a tour de force as much as his metaphoric ping pong player character's tour of Europe and Japan is in the film. He deserves the Oscar (he's already been awarded two acclaims). I'll also credit Sadie with laboring an astonishingly meticulous depiction of the game of table tennis, and good direction generally. The problem is: is this a story to have slaved over so much? Sure, ping pong is a niche underrated - especially when you see the gamesmanship here - sport. And it's great (I guess) the Sadie is bringing it out of the doldrums. Some people would say who cares. But it doesn't matter what the subject is so long as the movie depicting it makes sense and flows with enough energy. Okay, Marty Supreme flows heavily and is fast-paced. But after awhile all this kinesis starts to become numbing and rather unrealistic. Scene after scene Marty is engaging in some over the top argument or scam or physical confrontation with family members, friends and indeed enemies. Can one person - let alone a nebbish ping pong player - display such extreme vim and vigour? And I couldn't figure out why he would steal money after a seemingly successful tour albeit as a freak athlete. If this is a movie about a little known but wondrous marginal sport I wanted to see it, not another gangland style picture. A phrase kept coming to mind, "full of sound and fury, signifying...." as I also looked at my watch wondering when the conclusion would come to this 2.29 minute somewhat extravaganza. Meanwhile, an over the hill Gwyneth Paltrow - why her? - as Marty's Hollywood heartthrob actress, was meh. But I must say it was a gas to see Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary not just in cameo but throughout as a ruthless businessman. Is more acting in Mr. Wonderful's future?