"This new film from Josh Safdie has the fanatical energy of a 149-minute ping pong rally carried out by a single player running round and round the table. It's a marathon sprint of gonzo calamities and uproar, a sociopath-screwball nightmare like something by Mel Brooks only in place of gags, there are detonations of bad taste, cinephile allusions, alpha cameos, frantic deal-making, racism and antisemitism, sentimental yearning and erotic adventures. It's a farcical race against time where no one needs to eat or sleep."
"Timothee Chalamet plays Marty Mauser, a spindly motormouth with the glasses of an intellectual, the moustache of a movie star and the physique of a tiny cartoon character. He's loosely inspired by Marty The Needle Reisman, a real-life US table tennis champ from the 1950s who was given to Bobby Riggs-type shenanigans: betting, hustling and showmanship stunts. The movie probably earns the price of admission simply with one gasp-inducing setpiece involving whippet-thin Chalamet, a dog,"
The film propels a manic 149-minute surge of chaotic setpieces centered on Marty Mauser, an ambitious 1950s New York table-tennis hustler. Marty combines motormouth bravado, movie-star moustache and cartoonish physique while pursuing glory and marketing a Marty Supreme ball. The narrative hurtles through gambling, hustling, crass shock tactics, racism, antisemitism, erotic entanglements and sentimental yearning. Standout moments include a gasp-inducing hotel-room bathtub sequence and a disorientating climactic corporal-punishment revelation. The tone blends farce, outrage and pathology as Marty pursues Wembley championships amid frantic deals, showmanship stunts and cultural provocation.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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