Marty Supreme

This review may contain spoilers.

I was riveted through this entire film and loved it so much. It's not about table tennis; it is a metaphorical ball of emotion launching itself back and forth across the table that is the nominal plot of this movie. Every hit of pain or ecstasy that dug a character deeper was then immediately used to catapult that same character in a wider arc of emotion in the opposite direction.

I'm a vampire. I've been around forever. [...] You go out and win that game, you're gonna be here forever too. And you'll never be happy.

Marty is a metaphorical vampire, having figured out that he can keep pushing and pushing his luck to always, eventually, take that next hit of emotion from someone around him and turn it towards himself. He has figured out that if he pushes someone to the edge, they will either get the ecstasy or the terror and then he can harness that to slingshot himself upward to his next peak. He has learned how to suck the life out of others to power his dreams, by taking their fortune for himself.

Supremely fun and terrifying.

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Side thoughts:

Is the Safdie visual style kinda like social-drama but shot with sci-fi visuals?

Is a Safdie signature shot the framing of some characters face on a close-up 10º angle, where they emphatically push through the shallow depth of field over and over? It's so captivating.