STARRING: Timothée Chalamet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A'zion, Kevin O'Leary, Tyler Okonma, Abel Ferrara and Fran Drescher. Written by Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safde. Directed by Josh Safdie. Music by Daiel Lopatin, cinematography by Darius Khondji. Budget $70 million. Running time 150 minutes.
It's 1952 in New York City and Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet) is an insanely gifted, obscenely driven and disgustingly arrogant young man who eats, drinks, sleeps and shits Ping Pong, indeed nothing else matters to him. He is a man who believes he will reign supreme, it's just a shame life seems to have other plans for him. Forced to steal his own money back from his uncle, who runs a shoe shop, to finance a Ping Pong tournament in London, which he very nearly wins, Marty finds himself living it large at the Ritz and shagging retired actress and socialite Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow) whose husband, Milton Rockwell (Kevin O'Leary) just so happens to be a super-rich and highly influential captain of industry, whom Marty introduces to the world of Ping Pong, making him a huge fan in the process. When the whiff of success goes to Marty's head he wrecks a fantastic opportunity that would have put him on the map and leaves him having to return to New York eight months later, where he ends up on the run after his uncle bribes a policeman to arrest him for the previous robbery, added to that his married childhood friend, and lover, Rachel Mizler (Odessa A'zion) is pregnant and claims her unborn child is his, and then things just start going wrong, horribly wrong.
Beautifully mounted, fantastically acted, with a superb soundtrack and looking like a million, or 70 million dollars, this is a extremely well mounted film. Chalamet is simply mesmerising in the lead role and is in each and every scene, his performance is excellent. Likewise Gwyneth Paltrow as the former movie star packs a punch and gives the film at least one likeable character and it's great to see her acting again in something significant. Kevin O'Leary has her husband is also deeply impressive and makes a speech near the end that is fantastically unsettling. The ping pong games are exciting but a little bit repetitive and the promised rematch between Mauser and the Japanese World Champion feels a little rushed.
The only negative is just how bleak and relentless this is, and its length at 10 minutes short of three hours truly tries one's patiences. The trouble is Marty is such a thoroughly unlikeable character, constantly scamming his friends and family, and putting them in danger, he's manipulative and so single-minded that he's extremely hard to like, but then it's only in the closing moments as the film ends that Marty seems to have learned some valuable life lessons.
Beautifully mounted, fantastically acted, with a superb soundtrack and looking like a million, or 70 million dollars, this is a extremely well mounted film. Chalamet is simply mesmerising in the lead role and is in each and every scene, his performance is excellent. Likewise Gwyneth Paltrow as the former movie star packs a punch and gives the film at least one likeable character and it's great to see her acting again in something significant. Kevin O'Leary has her husband is also deeply impressive and makes a speech near the end that is fantastically unsettling. The ping pong games are exciting but a little bit repetitive and the promised rematch between Mauser and the Japanese World Champion feels a little rushed.
The only negative is just how bleak and relentless this is, and its length at 10 minutes short of three hours truly tries one's patiences. The trouble is Marty is such a thoroughly unlikeable character, constantly scamming his friends and family, and putting them in danger, he's manipulative and so single-minded that he's extremely hard to like, but then it's only in the closing moments as the film ends that Marty seems to have learned some valuable life lessons.
Great start to the new year. Intense, satisfying and well made, but I won't be hurrying back to it any time soon.
8/10
