Film Review - Marty Supreme (15)

 It's every man for himself where I come from. That's just how I grew up.

Marty Supreme fell between years for me - a 2025 release that I only got the chance to see after New Year 2026, so it didn't make my Films of the Year list. Since then, the Timothée Chalamet hype machine has worked a charm, so that Marty is now A24's most successful film worldwide. Plus, it netted nine Academy Award nominations, albeit failing to convert any into your actual Oscar statuettes. Which is a shame. It absolutely deserved part of the share. 

Chalamet is the eponymous Marty, Supreme referring to the character's uniquely orange balls - the ping-pong variety - and undoubtedly his oversized ego. Marty is a table-tennis prodigy and inveterate hustler in 1950s New York, the mean and gritty Lower East Side, to be specific. Working in his uncle's shoe store would be the safe way forward, but our boy has dreams of international sporting glory and will stop at nothing - legal or otherwise - to realise them. That's regardless of whatever wreckage he leaves strewn in his wake.

Director Josh Safdie has form when it comes to morally challenged protagonists, having given us - along with brother Benny - Good Time and Uncut Gems, stress-inducing tales of bad choices and the escalating chaos they create. This time Josh goes it alone but brings a similarly riotous energy with a new comedic twist. The film has a genuinely boisterous and unhinged quality, due to the utter unpredictability of both plot and lead character along with the camera's controlled freneticism and the tightness of the edit. You might enjoy, but don't expect to relax.

Chalamet plays Marty with shady charisma and outrageous levels of chutzpah - a small-time guy with big dreams, constantly on the make and able to talk himself in and out of trouble with equal speed. His narcissism and disregard for consequences will be a turn-off for some viewers, but there's fascination in just how far he can push his luck before it rebounds on him. And Oscar-hungry Timothée commits impressively to the role as much in his cocky demeanour as his table-tennis skills (apparently he spent even longer practising than he did learning guitar for his recent outing as Bob Dylan). It's another outstanding turn, even if some of Marty's obnoxiousness did seem to rub off on the actor as he promoted the film. We'll forgive him since he's this good.

There's memorable support from Gwyneth Paltrow as a faded Hollywood star seeking a comeback and Odessa A'zion as Marty's friend from childhood, the one potential constant in his chaotic existence. Also, Kevin O'Leary from the US Dragon's Den is great as a repellently smug businessman (funny, that). And if the cast as a whole must orbit around the self-promoting Marty, that's totally the point.  

The movie's star may have pushed it as a tale of single-mindedly pursuing your life's goal, but there's a lot more than that to this raucous fable. Combining a '50s aesthetic with a late 20th century soundtrack (Tears for Fears feature more than once) and contemporary cinematography, this is a tale for the ages. Marty's world is a scramble for survival in a society that rewards ruthlessness and crushes weakness - a bit too recognisable for comfort. Whether you end up condemning Marty's actions or cheering him on (likely a bit of both), the gritty realism of his situation is striking. Good job the ride he and Josh Safdie take us on is so damn entertaining.

Memorable moment: Alternative usage for a ping-pong paddle.

Ed's Verdict: 9.5/10. Exhilarating, exasperating, and sometimes hilarious, Marty Supreme is an American tale that will leave you breathless, however you respond to its dubious hero. And that ping-pong ball does look really cool.

Film Review - The Drama (15)

 Why are you acting like you've never done anything bad?

Take two photogenic young film stars. Cast them as affluent and charming professionals in love and about to get married. Make the best man and maid of honour their respective bffs - smart and witty for purposes of whipsmart repartee - and throw in a generous handful of scene-stealing support characters, plus a bunch of cool needle drops. Warm it all with an elusive and sexy marketing campaign, and serve up what feels like a classic romcom... for around the first fifteen minutes. Then lob in a metaphorical hand grenade that could scarcely cause more damage were it literal, plunging your genial genre pic into a very twenty-first century kind of turmoil. I give you The Drama.

Zendaya and Robert Pattinson play loved-up Emma and Charlie, their journey to the altar truly idyllic prior to an ill-advised game of 'What's the worst thing you've ever done?' For three of the group, the response is of the 'No you didn't...' variety, cue uproarious laughter. Emma's drunken confession, however, leaves her friends stunned and her fiancé reeling. It's a reveal that's teased in the trailer but wisely not spoiled. Suffice to say the bride-to-be's disclosure sends her intended into a psychological spiral, while threatening to derail the wedding. It certainly sends the film's romcom sensibilities careering off the tracks into territory that will test its audience's appetite for dark, potentially triggering comedy.

The fact that The Drama is distributed by independent film company A24 should be the first indication that it's going to subvert - make that incinerate - genre rules. Its set-up has the regulation tropes, albeit with hints of something more off-kilter at work - the film's muted colours, its protagonists' slightly sketchy meet-cute, an uncomfortable discovery regarding the wedding DJ... But none of that prepares for Emma's bombshell. The result is an excruciating wallow in second-hand embarrassment and a grimly funny (depending on personal sense of humour) exploration of how much one person can truly know another. 

The film's provocative subject-matter is grounded by its comely leads, whose chemistry is effortlessly established pre-crisis. Pattinson's deeply human response is the fulcrum on which the 'drama' pivots and is also bloody hilarious (although I'm not sure everyone in my screening shared that opinion), his emotional nose-dive made funnier by Charlie's Brit-out-of-water status. Zendaya provides Emma with necessary empathy, although the story remains sufficiently detached from her to make us doubt along with Charlie what's going on beneath her surface. Alana Haim (Licorice Pizza) is good value as Rachel, Emma's deliciously spiteful maid of honour, and there are great supporting turns, not least from Zoe Winters as an obliviously cheery wedding photographer.

The movie's spikiness is intensified in the edit - sharp as a sushi knife and switching to sometimes disorienting effect between past and present, the real and the imagined. And there's a subtly unsettling quality to the score, one particular recurring motif really putting the audience on edge. It all creates something uniquely uncomfortable, as tension mounts towards a fraught climax.

Writer/director Kristoffer Borgli brings acute observation to The Drama's relationship portrait while posing thorny questions that go way beyond Emma and Charlie's personal calamity. His film is edgy, satirical, and thematically daring, and will disturb many - understandably so - even while entertaining others. If you like movies that stirs up heated discussion by going where mainstream entertainment fears to tread, however, this one is not to be missed.

Memorable Moment: Emma and Charlie's warm-up photoshoot.

Ed's Verdict: 8/10. It made me laugh, it made me cringe, it made me think. Troubling and compelling, even while it made me choke with laughter, this is one that's going to stick with me all year.