Oh, wait, is this movie not about table tennis?

My thoughts

The director excels at portraying chaos. While many movies and TV shows struggle to maintain coherence, this one never pauses. Every time Marty gets a break, the movie takes a sharp turn. Due to force of habit, Marty blows it up and falls deeper into trouble and this keeps us at an edge. Every time I thought the movie would slow down, but instead, it uses that scene to build tension even more than before. This movie never takes a pause, stuff keeps happening and after a while you realize that the chaos has been going on for past 2 Hours and it doesn't look like it will slow down any further. This movie uses spoilers at places you would never think it needs, but these jump scares are actual plot devices rather than cheap scares. I will give it 4.5/5.

My Interpretation of the Plot [Spoilers]

The plot reveals Marty’s flaws right from the start. We see him having an affair with his married childhood friend, refusing to keep his job to support his mother, and stealing $700 from his workplace for the flight tickets. Despite his efforts to become the best table tennis champion, his habits hold him back. He has a job, but he squanders it by stealing from his workplace. Then, he gets a chance from Rockwell, who only needs him to lose an exhibition match against Endo. Endo had previously beaten Marty after Marty has been boasting about his win and getting aggressive with the table tennis board members. The movie also shows that karma always catches up with him. However, Marty’s helplessness stems from his cocky, overconfident, entitled, and narcissistic nature. He loses every opportunity that comes his way. His entitlement is evident when he demands a suite, even though no one from his country is receiving one.

The money he stole from his workplace catches up with him when he’s arrested, and the person he stole from takes back the money Marty won from his tournament. He gets an out, but all he has to do is have dinner with his mother, which he escapes.

As he flees from the police, Marty finds refuge in a hotel room. This is where he finds out that he is finned $1500 as his aggressiveness at his match against Endo catches up with him, and he’s fined $1500, which he has to pay, plus manage a flight ticket before the tournament begins. The manager advises him against using the shower, but Marty disregards the warning and later crashes into a man who had just checked in with his dog. The dog owner offers Marty money and takes him to the vet. Marty uses the money to scam other table tennis players with his friend. As always, karma catches up with him, and the people he swindled come after him, beating him up. Meanwhile, the dog escapes into a nearby house. Marty’s childhood friend, who had been with him throughout the movie, gets pregnant. The dog’s owner catches her and uses her to retrieve his dog. Marty takes them to the house the dog ran into and the house owner kills the dog’s owner. At his wit’s end, Marty finally meets Rockwell’s wife and sweet-talks her into giving him the necklace Rockwell gives her every anniversary. He plans to sell it to raise the money he needs. However, he blows this plan by starting to have sex with her in public. The police catch him, and Rockwell’s wife bribes the officer to let her off the hook by giving Marty the necklace she saved. Marty has no choice but to seek help from Rockwell.

Sound Design

This movie features excellent songs that are cleverly integrated into the narrative. I’m continually amazed by how effectively the music enhances the story. For example, when Marty is playing exhibition match with his friend, the movie plays a song whose lyrics are “everybody’s gotta learn sometime”.

Cinematography

The camera work in this movie is incredibly creative. There are numerous shots of a large stage with a lot happening, the camera starts zoomed out to show the entire stage before slowly zooming in on the subject.

The Cast

The cast is impressive. Timothy Charlemet delivers a fantastic performance as the character. He’s supposed to be the most Asshole person you’ve ever met, and Charlemet makes us hate him. There were moments when I genuinely wanted to punch Marty, but then I realized it was just fiction. I was surprised to learn that the taxi driver friend is Tyler, the Creator. He does a decent job, though it’s not Oscar-worthy. However, keep in mind that in Josh Safdie’s last movie, Uncut Gems (which I’ll watch next), The Weeknd has a small role in it. Kevin O’Leary, AKA Mr. Wonderful (I really don't care its just a meme), plays Rockwell in this movie. He plays the role perfectly because he just plays himself. Gwyneth Paltrow also appears. I’ve never seen her act outside of Pepper Potts from the MCU. Even so, she delivers a fantastic performance. You often see bad acting because it’s so obvious, but good acting usually goes unnoticed. I’m just realizing how good her acting is as I write this.