Timothée Chalamet (A Complete Unknown and Call Me By Your Name) stars as Marty Mauser, a 23-year-old, Jewish boy living in New York City in 1952. His dream is to be a champion in table tennis or what some refer to as "ping-pong." He doesn't seem to be college educated, probably because he couldn't afford it. He works for his uncle at his uncle's shoe store. He sells apparel, mainly to women, and he's very good at it. He seems very good at hustling people. He's very fast-talking and does a lot of quick monologues that feel relentless, until he gets his way or gets what he wants. He can be charming, but often he can be very annoying and offensive. He's smart enough to catch some people off guard, but often people simply surrender, just to get him out of their faces. His shtick doesn't work every time and frequently reaches its limits. However, he is relentless and he's so desperate and hungry to get what he wants that it compels him never to give up or to keep moving like a shark, in a "shark tank."
Directed and co-written by Josh Safdie, this is his solo directorial debut. He's mainly co-directed features with his younger brother, Benny Safdie. They were collectively known as the Safdie brothers. The younger one went solo first with Benny Safdie's The Smashing Machine (2025), which won the Silver Lion at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival. With Josh Safdie's solo film, it seems as if the two brothers were going their separate ways and trying to do different projects from each other. However, it's rather strange to see how much Josh's film is similar to Benny's. Both films are essentially sports biopics. Both focus on a sport that isn't mainstream and is arguably niche. Both have pivotal moments in Japan. Both are about underdogs who get no respect at least at first. Both are about these men desperately trying to make a name for themselves.
There are of course key distinctions between Josh's film and Benny's. For starters, Josh's film is more of a comedy. Benny's film is more of a drama. Josh's film has over-the-top and often ridiculous set-pieces that are designed to be as such and garner laughs. Another distinction is that Josh's film takes way more liberties and despite being based on a real person, it bears little resemblance to what the real life person most likely experienced. If it does, then Josh Safdie has clearly exaggerated to a higher degree. One of my criticisms of Benny's film is that it didn't seem to take any liberties. Benny's film in fact felt hamstrung to the real life person's experience. Benny's film was almost too faithful. Being so faithful isn't a bad thing, but, given that Benny's film was inspired by a documentary, Benny's film felt like it was copying and pasting what the documentary did into what he was doing. Josh's film doesn't have that hamstring. His protagonist was at his height in the 40's and 50's, so there wasn't any contemporaneous footage of the real-life person available, as far as I know, which actually gives Josh Safdie freedom to go anywhere with this narrative and he and co-writer, Ronald Brownstein certainly do.
Gwyneth Paltrow (Iron Man and Shakespeare in Love) co-stars as Kay Stone, a famous film actress who is considered to be aging and not as active in Hollywood as she used to be. She's married to a wealthy businessman named Milton Rockwell, played by Kevin O'Leary (Shark Tank). He made his fortune on ink pens and he's very successful. She doesn't necessarily seem to love him. She's more or less a trophy on his arm. She is perhaps only with him because he's wealthy. Her only acting prospects is in fact a play that he's bankrolling. She is certainly not above cheating on him any chance she can get, and she gets such the opportunity when Marty spies her in Tokyo and pursues her. He does so likely due to her beauty and status, but later he seeks to exploit her for her connection to this wealthy man.
Odessa A'zion (I Love LA and Grand Army) also co-stars as Rachel Mizler, a young woman who is the same age as Marty. She is a childhood friend of his who has known him since they were 9 or so. In fact, she lives in the same building as Marty. Marty lives with his single mother, whereas Rachel lives with her husband, Ira, played by Emory Cohen (Rebel Ridge and Brooklyn). She's described as not having purpose. She doesn't have a dream like Marty does or even like Kay had. She's probably attracted to Marty because he has this dream or ambition to be a ping-pong champion, so she latches onto him and helps him to give her some purpose. She can be a bit of a hustler too, but it seems as if only in relation to Marty. She doesn't have her own way or her own path. This might be understandable, given her economic position and given that she reveals she's pregnant with Marty's baby.
When it comes parenthood and one's relationship with one's parent or one's child, there seems to be a theme or some kind of message that Safdie is trying to convey. The film opens similarly to Look Who's Talking (1989) with showing Marty's sperm inseminating and fertilizing Rachel's ovum. Rachel's pregnancy is something that's emphasized over and over, so clearly it's an important thing here. What's also emphasized is Marty's relationship with his mother or lack thereof. His mother, played by Fran Drescher (The Nanny and This is Spinal Tap), seems to be the one and only parent in his life, as she's a single woman. Marty doesn't seem to want to talk to her much. He seems as annoyed by her as he seems to a lot of other people. It's never explained why his relationship with her is so strained or non-existent. For a good chunk of the film, Marty denies even being the father to Rachel's baby, which is probably fueled by his strained relationship with his mom. By the end, I'm not sure what Safdie is ultimately saying about that relationship and whatever future parenthood with Marty might look like.
The ultimate point here is the lengths a person will go to pursue a dream. Given that Marty's dream is simply to compete in a table tennis tournament in Japan, and he needs to earn money to pay for his flight and to pay some penalty fees. It's clearly not very high stakes, given that he could simply compete in next year's tournament, if he simply saves up. The extreme measures that Marty employs to be in this year's tournament don't ever really feel justified. He seems to be impulsive and operating without much of a plan. At one point, Kay calls him out on that, but the ending of this film doesn't really resolve that issue. He just seems to come up with one hustle or scam after another. All of which fails over and over. He's able to make some headway by somewhat prostrating himself. If one suspects whether Marty will go as far as sex work, he doesn't. Given the amount of fellatio references in the film, one wouldn't be crazy to assume that's where this film would go, but Safdie doesn't necessarily pull that trigger. There are other triggers pulled instead but not that one.
For those in the know, the shortlists for the 98th Academy Awards were announced the week of this film hitting theaters and one notable list was for casting, which will be the new category for that ceremony. This film made that list and seeing the actors who populate the narrative, I would agree that it's worthy of a nomination. From Tyler Okonma, the 34-year-old rapper-turned-actor playing Wally, the best friend to Marty, to Abel Ferrara, the 74-year-old provocative filmmaker, to Koto Kawaguchi, the real-life Japanese table tennis player, the cast here feels very authentic and feels very much lived-in, so there isn't much of a false note in terms of performance.
However, the cast is possibly too large and that's mainly due to how manic this film feels. This is not uncommon from how the Safdie brothers have done their previous films, such as Uncut Gems (2019) and Good Time (2017). Their films often move at breakneck speeds where their protagonists are often constantly in motion, never stopping to take a breath. They just keep going and going, with often surprises or crazy things around every corner, so the pacing and momentum feel quite nervous or nerve-inducing. This isn't inherently a bad thing, but it got to a point here where I felt like Safdie was throwing in so much or as much as he could in order to keep that nervous feeling as long as possible. Safdie literally throws in everything but the kitchen sink because instead of a sink, he decides to literally throw in or throw down a bathtub.
This is typical of a comedy. Throwing in as many comedic set-pieces as you can is what can be good about a comedy or for any entertainment. In a narrative, it's good if those things advance plot or character. In general, these things are arguably meant to break down Marty's arrogance, his confidence or his pride in order to get him to a point where he can recognize his errors and his flaws. In that, it's effective. There were simply a few set-pieces that were steps too far for myself. There was a whole section involving a dog and the state of New Jersey that felt like diversions that the story didn't necessarily need.
Even though it's not a comedy, the film this year that I think is a better display of an obsessed athlete who is desperate and unwavering to succeed in his sport, despite things falling against him is Elijah Bynum's Magazine Dreams (2025), starring Jonathan Majors. That film was arguably about a man who was suffering from a mental illness. His frustrations caused him to lash out in destructive ways. Marty's frustrations only compelled him more. Yet, it could be argued that Marty does destructive things too in his drive for sports glory. For example, he literally commits armed robbery and the only reason he's able to get out of it is due to nepotism and his privilege. Marty basically commits arson and he gets away with it.
It's strange because it's almost a situation like The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) where we follow this guy who is doing things that aren't good. In that case, people accused director Martin Scorsese of celebrating this guy. The same could be said of Josh Safdie here. Scorsese's film ends on a note that questions his shady protagonist. I'm not sure the same could be said of Safdie's film. This film instead ends on what could be considered a somewhat celebratory note. Obviously, Marty is a petty criminal. He's not the kind of guy that was depicted in The Wolf of Wall Street who basically scammed people out of hundreds of millions. Marty isn't on that scale, but if Jordan Belfort had only stolen under $1000, would he be considered not a bad guy?
Finally, it's interesting to see how Safdie chooses to shoot this film, particularly the ping-pong scenes. Most, if not all of them are shot in widescreen where we see the two players at all time in long continuous takes. It's almost as if one is watching an actual table tennis match with real table tennis players. In the case of the scenes with Kawaguchi, we are watching a real table tennis player. Reportedly, Chalamet studied for seven years in order to learn to play ping-pong. It shows in this film because we never see close-up shots, which might help to obscure the game-play and allow for someone else to hit the ball. We see Chalamet actually hitting the ball and doing it well, so congrats to Safdie and Chalamet for selling the sports scenes incredibly well.
Rated R for language, sexual content, some violent content, bloody images and nudity.
Running Time: 2 hrs. and 30 mins.
In theaters.