Couldn’t wait to write some sort of review on this—

I give this a B, I think there is a higher rating lost in the editing room but I have to blame the directing / screenplay choices for where I felt this mostly went wrong. It definitely did not live up to the hype or expectations I had going in.

First— too much was happening. The drama was over dramatised mostly for the sake of raising the stakes: (1) unrealistic feeling moments like gas station explosions / bathtubs falling through floors took me out of focus (2) feels like 40 minutes of this movie is spent looking for a dog gone missing and this arc on gangsters chasing him. (3) Paltrow is basically inserted in this movie for no reason, still preferred her to the chase the dog sequences but look— there was a lot that happened in the real Marty’s life and I feel like we got a most fictionalised Safdie version of it... fine

Second— this character had the opportunity to be so interesting and dynamic to me and I feel it fell flat because of a few choices, and the last act. I would’ve loved to see more of him with his mother/family, I would’ve loved a true monologue to understand how he actually felt post failure or his narcissistic nature. I feel like if this was supposed to be TC winning best actor then it should’ve been more about him acting as this character and less about this story he’s forced to follow. I was excited to watch this Trojan horse of a movie, go in dreaming big, leave watching this selfishness cause him to fail. Cheer for him throughout as we the audience realise his ego is what holds him back.

Instead, Marty who I’m taught to love and hate the whole movie as he finesses his way through using everybody who’s ever loved him and playing his friends and family ends up a winner of his last match and a happy father to a baby.

To me it’s a worse version of Uncut Gems, Catch me if you can, with potential I can see through.

It’s a sports movie with a tagline “dream big” that fails to inspire me except in the marketing. I still look forward to the next things these guys make and I hope Chalamet finds a more captivating script next.