Timothee Chalamet, with a paddle and an obsession, merits a trip to the theater to see “Marty Supreme” this holiday week. Also opening in theaters on Wednesday: Bradley Cooper in directorial mode in “Is This Thing On?,” Hugh Jackman doing Neil Diamond in “Song Sung Blue” and “No Other Choice,” Park Chan-wook’s wicked new comedy.
Josh Safdie, who, with his brother Benny codirected “Good Time” and “Uncut Gems,” goes solo with “Marty Supreme,” a sports biopic and crime comedy loosely based on the life of table-tennis champion Marty Reisman. This being a Safdie movie, audiences can expect to be taken on a kinetic ride through chaotic straits with a wired, desperate protagonist. Chalamet plays Reisman, aka Marty Supreme, who, in Safdie and cowriter Ronald Bronstein’s version, is a 23-year-old shoe salesman in New York City in 1952. Marty is also a talented ping-pong player who will do whatever it takes to become the American face of the sport. He helps himself to $700 from the company safe and sets off to conquer the ping-pong world.
The film follows Marty from a Harlem Globetrotters gig to a rematch with Japanese world champion Koto Endo that he’s brazenly demanded. At one point, with his pregnant girlfriend, Rachel (Odessa A’zion), he carries out a ransom scheme involving a gangster’s dog. At another, he beds a retired screen star named Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow) and hustles her and her rich husband for money.
It’s hard to believe that so many people would fall for this brash, shady glory seeker. Chalamet, who does his own ping-pong playing, supplies the depth and charisma necessary to make the unlikeable Marty a fascinating main character. He aces the plum role. Among releases of the season, “Marty Supreme” may be the most efficiently crafted and entertaining.
An anti–“Marty Supreme” of sorts, “Is This Thing On?,” directed by Cooper, is an amiably paced, good-natured dramedy with civil, personable decent characters. Cowritten by Cooper, Will Arnett and Mark Chappell and inspired by the life of British comedian John Bishop, it’s about a 20-years-married New York suburban couple. Alex (Arnett) is “in finance.” Tess (Laura Dern), a former volleyball star, is a stay-at-home mom. “I think we need to call it,” Tess tells Alex, while brushing her teeth, and Alex agrees.
When the newly separated Alex stumbles into the Comedy Cellar delivers a open-mic monologue about his marital split, the experience feels like therapy. When Tess shows up at the club and finds that Alex is a featured comedian, his confessional monologue, in which he describes her fondly, excites her. Lighter and softer than the Cooper-directed “Maestro” and “A Star Is Born,” “Is This Thing On?” is agreeable and nonthreatening, lacking edge but radiating warmth. It’s a charming old-fashioned remarriage story that captures the energy of the underground comedy scene.
Arnett, a comedian playing a non-comedian doing a comedy act that is unfunny yet endearing, is captivating. Dern, shortchanged by the script’s failure to give Tess’s route to rejuvenation — a coaching job — the focus that Alex’s standup sideline receives, brings a wealth of emotion, including a moving underlying sadness, to her character. Andra Day and Cooper himself costar as a fellow married couple whose relationship is crumbling. Real comedians, including Amy Sedaris and Jordan Jensen, also appear.
Two struggling musicians start a wildly successful Neil Diamond act in “Song Sung Blue,” a musical romance from filmmaker Craig Brewer (“Hustle & Flow”) that begins enjoyably but loses its spark when the plot takes an unfortunate turn. Based on a 2005 documentary by Greg Kohs, Brewer’s 1990s-set biopic tells the story of Milwaukeeans Mike Sardina (played by Jackman) and Claire Stengl (Kate Hudson), single parents and small-time gig musicians with financial and personal challenges. The two meet at the Wisconsin State Fair, where Claire is doing a Patsy Cline act, and they fall in love and form a Neil Diamond tribute band. The band, called Lightning and Thunder, becomes a local sensation, but a devastating accident changes everything.
As formulaic biopics go, the movie, coasting on its stars’ chemistry, is engaging at first. But appeal erodes in its second half, largely a hardship melodrama. Even with Hudson’s strong performance as the troubled Claire, the film’s characterizations remain superficial. Brewer doesn’t skimp on the songs, which include lesser-known Neil Diamond numbers as well as hits. In a funny running bit, Mike frustrates his managers when opening his shows with “Soolaimon” instead of “Sweet Caroline.”
Lee Byung-Hun stars in Park Chan-wook’s dark comedy “No Other Choice.” (Neon via Bay City News)
Also this week, look for “No Other Choice,” from South Korean auteur Park Chan-wook (“Oldboy”). Based on a Donald E. Westlake novel, Park’s wicked dark comedy follows a desperate laid-off paper-industry man, excellently played by Lee Byung-hun, who decides to kill off his rivals for the job he seeks.
Classic masterworks showing in theaters include “Children of Paradise” (1945), Marcel Carne’s epic romantic drama set in 1930s Paris. It screens at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco at 6:30 p.m. on Christmas Day. Also, “Throne of Blood” (1957), Akira Kurosawa’s visceral adaptation of William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” screens at San Francisco’s Balboa Theater at 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.
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