Marty Supreme is a perfect film, except for one distracting detail.

Marty Supreme is two hours and thirty minutes long, yet it flies by in a heartbeat.

This new film from Josh Safdie (Uncut Gems and Good Time) moves at breakneck speed, offering up a melting pot of drama, dream chasing, violence, romance, and the intricacies of the professional ping-pong scene in a way that is intoxicating to watch.

Timothée Chalamet stars as Marty Mauser (a character loosely based on Marty "The Needle" Reisman, a real-life US table tennis champ from the 1950s), a young man working in a shoe shop in 1950's New York who is dissatisfied with the mediocre life that has been laid out for him, partly by his mother (a perfectly cast Fran Drescher) and is adamant that he is destined for greater things.

Specifically, he dreams of being the world's top-ranked table tennis player and winning the British Open, while also launching his own brand of balls called the 'Marty Supreme'.

He's also having an affair (and quite a bit of stockroom sex) with his married childhood sweetheart Rachel (Odessa A'zion), and after holding a gun to a co-worker's head in order to secure the shoe shop wages he said he's owed, Marty flies off to the UK expecting to soon return home to New York as a celebrated star.

Yet all does not go to plan, and not only does Marty give a problematic interview to reporters about a fellow player, but he is also spectacularly defeated by a Japanese player (Koto Kawaguchi) and promptly throws a very public tantrum about his loss.

In amongst the table tennis drama, Marty's London trip also leads him to meet Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow), a once-famous Hollywood actress who stepped away from the spotlight in order to become a bored society wife to businessman Milton Rockwell (Kevin O'Leary). Over the course of the film, Marty befriends and then seduces Kay through sheer annoyance and arrogance (which is not a message I hope men take away from this film), while also getting into a precarious business arrangement with her husband.

You see, when a disgraced Marty returns to New York, he discovers that he has been banned from the World Championship unless he pays a $1,500 fine to the International Table Tennis Association.

Image: A24.

This leads Marty into a frantic series of events that see him become entangled with a dangerous mobster (Kevin O'Leary) and hustle a bunch of men at a bowling alley alongside his friend, taxi driver Wally (Tyler, The Creator). All of which leads to explosions, police chases, shootouts, break-and-enters, and the unfortunate occurrence of a bathtub falling through a hotel room ceiling and landing on a dog.

Now, if that rapid-fire synopsis gave you whiplash, I hesitate to reveal to you that these are but a handful of events that take place within Marty Mauser's wild ride chasing global ping pong victory. It's also this intense onslaught of storytelling that makes Marty Supreme such a compelling viewing experience.

There's so much story to take in within every frame of this Josh Safdie work that I fear you will not be able to reach for your popcorn in the cinema or even glance at your phone if watching on streaming (although avoid that if you can, this is a cinema release experience if I've ever seen one) without missing a pivotal plot point and be left behind.

The real triumph of Marty Supreme is how much action and storytelling are able to be squeezed into this film without one element of it feeling flimsy or unfinished.

Every character, even those with limited screen time, feels believable and fleshed out in a way that makes you feel like you've just watched a 10-episode prestige series instead of an (admittedly long) movie.

Take a look at the trailer for Marty Supreme. The article continues below.

While every cast member of Marty Supreme shines, Gwyneth Paltrow's turn as Kay Stone is an absolute standout. This is the Oscar winner turned Goop founder's first leading role in a film since 2010, and she delivers a compelling performance as the former Hollywood golden girl who is both exasperated by Marty's arrogance and drawn to having an affair with him as a way to escape her gilded cage of a life.

In one scene, Paltrow drops Kay's respectable ice queen demeanour and shows a hint of previously unseen vulnerability to the audience. It's the opening night of her new play (funded by her rich husband), and after years away from acting, she delivers her opening lines to thunderous applause from the audience. Kay turns her back on the crowd for a moment and breaks character, allowing a smile of such intense joy, relief, and surprise to quickly pass across her face, which gives the audience an unfiltered insight into the true workings of this character.

What makes this scene even more interesting to watch is the knowledge that it's the first scene Paltrow filmed for Marty Supreme, and for a brief moment, it's almost like the character and the actress are sharing a moment of wonder at returning to their craft.

An important reminder that, bone both controversies and vagina eggs aside, the woman can really act.

But the greatest heavy lift, of course, comes from Timothée Chalamet as Marty Mauser in a performance that moves with such intensity through a chaotic mix of highs and lows that it's the acting equivalent of running a marathon at sprinting speed.

It's an extraordinary performance, one made even more impressive not by his huge dramatic turns featuring screaming and skirmishes (although there are plenty of those) but in the quieter moments as well, when this larger-than-life character appears utterly defeated. It's a credit to both the writing and Chalamet's performance that this overwhelmingly unlikable character, a completely entitled anti-underdog, makes it impossible for you not to root for him.

At the same time, Chalamet's performance is also the only slight distraction that pulls you out of this dramatic tale.

While watching this film, his desire to win that Oscar starts to slowly seep outside the screen in a way I almost found distracting. We've seen it before with actors who know they are in the vehicle that is likely to hand them that golden statue if they just push hard enough (Leonardo DiCaprio and Matthew McConaughey's respective Oscar-winning performances come to mind here), and in his defence, history tells us this tactic is likely to pay off.

And of course, this all adds an interesting 'art-imitating life' slant that Timothée Chalamet is more closely aligned with Marty Mauser than we were ever led to believe.

Overall, Marty Supreme is a wildly entertaining ride with a standout cast. See it in a cinema if you can, because this is a viewing experience you'll definitely want to share.

Marty Supreme is in Australian cinemas on Thursday, 22 January, it is rated M.

Feature Image: A24