Could this film have been 98 minutes instead of 150? Yes. Was it incredibly overstimulating? Yes. Seeing it in the cinema, however, is very different from seeing it at home. In the cinema, time does not exist and neither does logic when it comes to storylines, character development, and endings. I will say, Timothée Chalamet is an incredible actor. His refusal to be type casted is always refreshing to see as he has been many different people throughout his performances from “Call Me By Your Name” (2017), part one of “Dune” (2021), part two of “Dune” (2024), to playing Marty Mauser in this hit periodical drama, loosely inspired by American table tennis champion, Marty Reisman.
I love films that make me forget the actor behind the sharp line delivery and underneath the makeup. That’s different from casting people to simply play themselves, as we saw with Kevin O’Leary as business tycoon Milton Rockwell.
This may be an unpopular take, but I liked how most of the characters had no redeeming qualities, probably because my favourite book is still A Clockwork Orange. Marty is a player and a hustler, skirting through financial struggles in 1950s New York whilst chasing his dream of being the face of American table tennis, a sport that was majorly popular at the time in Japan before making its way overseas. He has an, albeit convoluted, plan. I say unlikeable because of his manipulation of the obstacles that stand in his way, be it money, his heavily pregnant girlfriend (who he shows little care for until the very end) or his lack of support from family and friends over at the local ping pong arcade. Marty is ruthlessly resourceful and at some points devoid of caution. Getting enough money to make his way to Japan for the finals is the only thing that matters; he has lost sight of what his life will become after he achieves these short-term goals. He has an immediate plan but nothing in case of contingency, which the film captures in its many plot-holes, jump cut like cinematography, and intimate close ups where the world beyond the frame is nothing but noise to someone as conceited as Marty Mauser.
He is a kid. A 23-year-old kid caught up in his own sense of righteousness with a unique skill of dragging others down with him, as he did to Rachel Mizler (played by Odessa A’zion) through his scams and lies, all to get a second chance at victory. Rachel’s character is one I had a hard time with, feeling sympathy but also frustration. She is dependent on the men in her life, caught between her grumbling and, reading between the lines, abusive husband at home and the life of thrill Marty symbolizes to her. I do not appreciate female characters in films that are constant liabilities. She is pregnant and expects him to give everything up to support her. He is, like I said, 23 year old, unemployed kid in a man’s body. If I were a woman in her position in the 1950s I doubt I would have thought any different however the contrast with a weathered Hollywood star played by Gwyneth Paltrow provides the layers of feigned guilt and cheeky manipulation to Marty’s character rather than the woman as characters of their own.
The people in Mart’s world, as seen from our perspective, revolve around him from. No doubt because this is how Marty sees the world and the people in it. A means to an end. There is a lot of historical tidbits fed to the audience, with haphazard references to the Jewish experience after Auschwitz, racial tension, and the aftermath of America’s bombing of Japan. It creates this backdrop of chaos and conflict that doesn’t disappear just because a treaty is signed. Everyone’s struggle is amplified by the film’s stylistic choice and pacing, but Marty’s exploitation of other people despair remains central. Even the name of the film is an ode to Marty’s sense of supremacy.
Marty’s end goal is to rematch and beat Koto Endo (played by Koto Kawaguchi) Japanese Table Tennis’ pride and joy.
So he beats him? Is that his way to becoming champion? Well, we don’t get to know that because the story leaves us in the lurch. We, the audience, are made to expect a character arc after realizing the game itself no longer serves a purpose once Marty returns to the U.S.A. A lot of this film is a big “so what?” but for the most part I really enjoyed it. I leant forward in my chair many a times during pivotal matchup moments and intense conversations. The slowest moment where he is face to face with his newborn child left me trying to figure out if Marty was playing everyone like a ping pong ball to get to this precious moment, or if he sees fatherhood as just another piece to slot into his ego.
