Gwyneth Paltrow | Bouquets & Brickbats

01/01/2026

Cineworld, Edinburgh

Our first film of 2026 was supposed to be our last film of 2025. But we were in North Wales where, for some inexplicable reason, Marty Supreme simply wasn’t yet available in cinemas and we were obliged to watch The Housemaid instead. So obviously, when it came time to start the process anew, there was only one logical choice.

It’s clear from the opening scenes that Josh Safdie’s frenetic odyssey about ambitious young table tennis player, Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet), is going to be something very special. The titular character is loosely based on a real-life ping pong star, the late Marty Reisman – though whether the man who inspired this story was the swaggering, single-minded, motor-mouthed huckster portrayed here is up for debate.

Certainly, many of the incidents portrayed in the script – co-written by Safdie and Ronald Bronstein – echo real life events, though the filmmakers are quick to point out that it’s all fictional.

When we first encounter Marty, he’s grudgingly working at his Uncle Murray’s shoe shop in New York City. This is solely to fund his upcoming journey to England, where he’ll be competing in the 1952 World Table Tennis Championship. He’s also enjoying a clandestine affair with Rachel (Odessa A’zion), an unhappily-married woman who works in the shop next door, and whom Marty soon manages to impregnate. In fact, we actually witness this biological process over the film’s opening credits.

Once at the championships, Marty hooks up with former movie actress, Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow). He sees her as a possible source of funding for his future endeavours and, after a swift telephone seduction, he enjoys a quick dalliance with her. Her husband is wealthy industrialist Milton Rockwell (Kevin O’ Leary), a manufacturer of fountain pens.

Meanwhile, as the ping pong tournament progresses, Marty easily vanquishes all the opposing players until, in the final, he’s matched against Japanese player, Koto Endo (Koto Kawaguchi). The newcomer’s idiosyncratic style of play utterly throws Marty. He loses the match and is obliged to return to America humiliated – but his determination to win turns into an overwhelming obsession…

To label Marty Supreme as ‘a film about table tennis’ would be something of an understatement. Yes, it is that – and the many sequences that depict the sport are undeniably gripping – but it’s also a multi-faceted examination of ambition, greed and the almost pathological need to win at all costs. Chalamet has always been an accomplished actor but here he delivers a performance of such staggering intensity, it just might be the one that finally steers him in the direction of that coveted Oscar podium.

I also want to mention production designer Jack Fisk, who came out of retirement for this film, and captures the dark squalor of 1950s America with exceptional skill. A technical Oscar for his work would also seem a likely fit.

As for the director, anyone who saw Uncut Gems – which Safdie co-directed with his brother, Benny – will know that he has a penchant for ramping up anxiety to almost unbearable levels. That quality is certainly very much in evidence here as the film careers from one stress-inducing set piece to the next, barely allowing me time to draw breath. The movie is also packed with legions of oddball characters who surge onto the screen, capture my interest and just as swiftly vanish. The film is sometimes weird, occasionally startling and always heart-stoppingly brilliant.

If the self-aggrandising Marty isn’t the kind of character who usually inspires a viewer’s allegiance (he’s self-centred and utterly convinced of his own talent), Safdie is wise enough to surround him with even more despicable people, chief among them oily fat-cat Rockwell, who, at one point, takes the greatest pleasure in humiliating Marty for the entertainment of his friends. The result is that I’m always rooting for our antihero, even when I’m horrified at the depths he’s prepared to sink to.

This is quite simply a gobsmacking film – and I have no doubts whatsoever that it’s destined to feature in our ‘best of’ list for 2026. Make sure you catch it where it belongs, on the biggest screen you can find.

5 stars

Philip Caveney

‘Shakespeare in Love’

12/11/18

We’re seeing more and more screenplays being turned into stage adaptations these days, but Shakespeare In Love has a stronger claim than most to be afforded such treatment. Originally penned by Marc Norman and theatrical legend Tom Stoppard, it won seven Oscars in 1998 (one of them for Judy Dench, who was onscreen for all of six minutes). It also made the careers of Gwyneth Paltrow and Joseph Fiennes. This adaptation by Lee Hall was first produced in the West End and has a rumbustious musical score by Paddy Cuneen thrown in for good measure.

Set in the year 1564, we first encounter Will Shakespeare (Pierro Nel-Mee) at the Rose Theatre. He’s mostly a jobbing actor, only recently embarked on his career as a playwright and struggling to create his latest commission – a comedy escapade entailed Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate’s Daughter. It doesn’t help that his friend, Kit Marlowe (Edmund Kingsley), is currently enjoying stellar success as a writer, seemingly able to pluck words from the air with a minimum of effort. He often finds himself acting as Will’s muse.

Meanwhile, Viola de Lesseps (Imogen Daines), a noblewoman destined for an arranged marriage with the contemptible Lord Wessex (Bill Ward), dreams of a career on the stage at a time when women never get to tread the boards and where their roles are generally played by willowy young men in drag. When she hears that open auditions are being held for the new Shakespeare play, she disguises herself as a young chap and goes along to give it her best shot. As it happens, Viola is a huge fan of Will’s work and he, in turn, is so impressed by the way she reads his lines, he impulsively casts her as his Romeo. As their working relationship develops and he begins to suspect that this young actor is not exactly what ‘he’ appears to be, the play becomes less the comic romp that Will’s patrons have envisaged and more the romantic tragedy that audiences have come to know. That said, Shakespeare in Love is full of delicious humour with plenty of knowing nods and winks to many of Shakespeare’s other works, especially Twelfth Night.

A sizeable ensemble cast work their doublets and hoses off to keep the action bubbling away while an ingenious revolving stage provides a whole variety of locations, most effectively when it contrives to offer both a backstage and a front-of-house look at the same scenes. Cuneen’s music regularly supplies a series of jaunty, hand-clapping interludes and everything scampers along at such a sprightly pace there’s never time to pause and reflect on how unlikely the story is – but then, isn’t that the very essence of Shakespeare in the first place?

This is a delicious treat for Shakespeare fans and lovers of comedy alike, an ingenious and jocund adaptation that provides a most satisfying night at the theatre.

4.6 stars

Philip Caveney