Marty Supreme (2025, R)

Like One Battle After Another, I was a little wary going into this one, though I admit I didn’t really know what to expect. All I really knew was “Timothée Chalamet plays an asshole table tennis pro”—in some ways, it’s very in line with what I would’ve thought, while other aspects of the film surprised me. And again, as with One Battle After Another, I did enjoy it on the whole, even if some parts of it don’t work for me.

In 1952, table tennis player Marty Mauser sets out to be the first American champion of the sport. As he pours his focus into a major tournament, his own needs are paramount—everybody else comes second. A poor Jewish kid from New York with something to prove, the brash Marty fights tooth and nail to turn his aspirations into reality.

Marty Supreme is nominated for nine Oscars. Included among them are Best Picture, Best Leading Actor, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Cinematography.

First, to demonstrate just how little I’d been following this movie prior to watching it, I didn’t even know it was a period piece. I hadn’t seen the trailer, and I don’t usually watch the precursor award shows ahead of the Oscars, so I hadn’t seen any clips shown before giving out Best Leading Actor awards. All I really knew was a one-line thumbnail description of the movie and a few still images of Chalamet as Marty. As such, there was a lot to the film that I hadn’t anticipated.

Marty is indeed a self-important asshole. While he’s undeniably talented, he steamrolls and dismisses people when it suits him, only to return with his tail between his legs when his attitude comes back to bite him. He’s the “friend” who’s constantly asking for favors without returning them, he doesn’t treat his friend-with-benefits Rachel the way she deserves, and just generally, he operates as if the world revolves around him. He’s incredibly slappable.

That said, there’s something deeper going on here than simply ego—that’s only part of it. Marty knows he has what it takes to be a star, and he’s desperate for his shot to prove it. But in his view, he’s never been given a single break, so he has to maneuver and hustle for everything he has, stepping on other people before they step on him. Much of the runtime is spent, not on table tennis, but on Marty angling to get the money to pay for his trip to Tokyo for the championship tournament. Along the way, he encounters plenty of people who seem to have it so much easier than he does, and he’d do anything to have what they have.

Timothée Chalamet gets the job done as Marty. He annoys the hell out of you, and you feel how he’s bringing a lot of his problems on himself with his rash behavior, but at the same time, his feverish desperation comes through loud and clear. Gwyneth Paltrow plays Kay, a former silent film actress turned trophy wife. Although the way her character is used in the film aggravates me—I get that she’s a faded starlet stuck in a loveless marriage, but Marty’s cocky, smarmy routine should not work on her as well as it does—Paltrow does what she can to sell it. I’m not familiar with Odessa A’zion, who gives a terrific performance as Rachel. She’s probably the one character who’s a match for Marty, even if her bullshitting skills aren’t as polished as his, and it’s great to watch A’zion and Chalamet go toe to toe.

Warnings

Language (including racist and antisemitic slurs,) sexual content, violence, disturbing images, smoking, and thematic elements.

The Secret Agent (2025, R)

With the way timing and availability worked out, it just so happened that I watched all three of the international features on my list in a row. I thought The Secret Agent was well-made, although I can tell there are some nuances I wasn’t getting.

In 1977, Armando sneaks back into his hometown. He wound up on the wrong side of a powerful person, and now his life is in danger. He’s staying in an apartment building filled with people in similar situations, biding their time until they can get out of Brazil with new passports under assumed names.

The Secret Agent is up for four Oscars, including Best International Feature, Best Picture, and Best Leading Actor. It’s a political thriller that feels slow at times, action-packed at others. I thought that made it a little hard to get into the rhythm of it, and at over two-and-a-half hours, I definitely felt its length. I also think I’d have gotten more out of it if I knew more about this period in Brazilian history under the military dictatorship—I could follow the story all right, but I recognized my position as an American dumbass who was watching it on more of a surface level.

That said, I still enjoyed it. I love Dona Sebastiana, the little old lady who runs the apartment refuge. She takes zero prisoners and does whatever needs to be done, but she also will try to hook Armando up with the attractive woman who lives above him. Armando’s relationship with his young son Fernando is quite affecting. Fernando’s been living with his maternal grandparents since his mom died and his dad’s been in hiding. He’s obsessed with wanting to see Jaws, despite everyone pointing out it’s going to give him nightmares, and there’s nothing he wants more than to be with his dad. Additionally, there are some great suspenseful sequences and an absolutely wild attempted hit.

Wagner Moura is the only actor I’m familiar with here, and of course, he got the Best Leading Actor nomination. Needless to say, Armando is a very different character than Pablo Escobar in Narcos, and Moura does a lovely, understated job as an ordinary man who’s been thrust into an extraordinary situation.

Warnings

Violence, disturbing images, sexual content, language, drinking/smoking, and strong thematic elements.

Y tu Luna también: Narcos: Mexico: Season 1, Episode 8 – “Just Say No” (2018)

*Spoilers for the end of episode 7*

A lot going on in this episode. Pieces are moving around the board to come to a head at the end of the season, and here, we see a major move. But at the same time as the future is being set up, things from the past are still rippling up to the present.

The DEA has just struck the Guadalajara cartel a major blow. They’ve located Rafa’s marijuana fields and seized/burned everything. Everyone is jumpy, but Félix insists that they just keep their heads down. Coke is where the real money is now, so as long as no one does anything stupid, they can take a hit on the fields. But he’s the only one who’s interested in keeping calm. Rafa is equal parts depressed and enraged, Félix’s partners in the government are nervous about exposure, and Amado gets more than he bargained for when he tries to get Acosta on board with the future of Félix’s vision.

We’ll start with Amado and Acosta. In the last episode, Félix made several big unilteral moves within the organization, one of which was to send Amado to Juarez to help manage Acosta’s crochety self. The old trafficker has been stuck in the past, and Amado is both annoyed and impatient as he sets out to modernize the plaza, but things quickly take a turn for the unexpected. I like these scenes because I love how utterly unimpressed Acosta is by Amado—“I don’t listen to a bastard who pisses sitting down,” he says. Likewise, his old-school approach is very hands-on, and while it’s admittedly a waste of resources, there’s something to respect in Acosta’s attitude as he explains, “I don’t send anyone to do shit I can do myself.”

After losing his fields—which accounted for 1/3 of all U.S. marijuana consumption at the time—Rafa is a mess. He already was angry that Félix was neglecting the weed in favor of coke, and now he feels outright betrayed. And his plants, his babies, paid the price. In his anger and grief, Rafa decides to quit coke cold turkey, which is an understandable impulse but pretty wild and ill-advised. This plotline features a hallucination sequence that’s just fantastically done. It manages to be both understated and obvious at the same time, which is quite a feat.

As for Kiki, seizing the fields gives him a big win, and he’s flying high as he hopes for approval on more tangible action from the U.S. government. One of his co-workers is happy at the thought of riding off triumphantly into the sunset with a transfer back to the States, but surprise, surprise, Kiki wants to see what happens next. He doesn’t fully conceptualize the kind of enemies he’s just made.

A big part of Félix’s job is convincing people things are fine when shit goes down. Stop people in-fighting, stop people retaliating, make the promises and trust that the infrastructure he needs to pull it off is going to show up. Here, after a very public show of force by the DEA, he’s consistent on messaging, but nobody’s listening.

He insists that the bust is where the DEA’s case ends, that he’s plugged any leaks and no one else is going down. But when he’s in bed with the Mexican government, the word of a narco who’s just taken a serious hit doesn’t mean much. His government pal is laser-focused on making the problem go away, and Félix’s only goal is trying to convince him not to make things worse in an over-hasty effort to fix them.

One thing I like about Diego Luna’s performance is that, if nothing else, Félix pretty much always maintains a degree of control over himself. He rubs elbows with a lot of people who look down on him, but even when he’s trying not to freak out himself, he clings onto a shred of dignity and is still able to project confidence. When his government friend hints at his plan for a response, Félix shuts him down flatly, refusing to rise to the bait of his insinuations.

“They call you the Godfather. And you’re afraid to get your hands dirty, Félix?” his government pal asks. Steadily, Félix replies, “Not even close. But I am afraid of panic. Turns out it’s bad for business.” As usual, he finds enough calm to do the smart thing instead of the emotional thing. It’s just a question of whether he can get the right people to go along with it.