We take a look at what is being said about Josh Safdie’s comedy starring Timothée Chalamet.
The Guardian: ***** “The catastrophes, the stunts, the shocks, the jabbering desperation and Marty’s supercharged neediness, with everything important in his life poised to be thrown away, like the box of Marty’s patented table tennis balls that goes out of the window. And yet somehow our pint-sized hero always comes back and even achieves a poignant kind of maturity in the final shot. The pure craziness is a marvel.”
Scriptmag.com: “At its center is Timothée Chalamet delivering one of the most ferocious performances of his career. Not his most likable character. Not his most restrained work. But absolutely one of his most alive.”
The FT: ***** “The pleasures are many: an electric star turn from Timothée Chalamet; a splendid diorama of Manhattan’s Lower East Side circa 1952; a supporting cast including, of all people, Gwyneth Paltrow. And we get a wholly fresh take on that ever-popular genre, the ping-pong movie.”
NME.com: ***** “The direction is so frenetic that it somehow makes table tennis even more thrilling than the rubber-burning race scenes in F1, while there are at least three jaw-dropping set-pieces that Safdie lands on you like gleefully delivered trick shots. “
Empire: ***** “In a film of rousingly intense performances (right down to all the grizzled non-actors who inhabit bustling New York), the star is the standout, larger than life despite keeping everything coiled and contained. When Tears For Fears’ ‘Everybody Wants To Rule The World’ plays on the soundtrack, you might recall that this is an actor who’s openly stated that he’s in “pursuit of greatness” and desires to win an Oscar. This could be his moment.”
RogerEbert.com: **** “Of course, the film belongs to Chalamet, who fully captures the kind of guy who thinks confidence is currency. He doesn’t just refuse to take no for an answer; he never stops to think before he speaks, often shutting doors that others are trying to open for him through his big mouth. He gives a performance reminiscent of ’70s Al Pacino, playing the guy who’s the most fascinating and annoying person in the room at the same time.”
The Telegraph: ***** “Madcap ping-pong comedy Marty Supreme, in which Gywneth Paltrow has her juiciest role in years, is an absolute blast.”
The Standard: ***** “The whirling human energy and rat-a-tat “New Yoik” repartee is off the scale (audiences are in danger of death by chutzpah), while Safdie somehow manages to find the most beauteously misshapen, wizened, crag-faced extras to populate every scene. Is Safdie set to inherit Scorsese’s New York crown?”
Screen Daily.com: “Marty Supreme’s most combustible element is Chalamet, who relishes Marty’s bullheaded selfishness. Whereas the Oscar-nominated actor’s portrayal of Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown was an equal mixture of charm and arrogance, here he depicts Marty as an entitled, callous jerk who manages to bowl people over through the sheer force of his ambition. Whether seducing an ageing movie star (Gwyneth Paltrow) or fast-talking her wealthy, unaware husband (Kevin O’Leary), Marty has an incredible ability to win people over, despite his abrasive personality.”
IGN.com: “Marty Supreme may be a movie about ping pong, but its most memorable moments happen far from the table. This is a sports movie, so I don’t think it’s too much of a spoiler to say the third act centers on a climactic match. But where the film really gets your heart pumping, where Safdie-induced stressors from all the quick cuts and cacophony of sound design really crescendo, is in Act Two. When you first walk out of the theater, it’ll be scenes from the middle section that you can’t wait to discuss.”
The film is out in cinemas now.