Can Timothy Salome play a supremely annoying character and still keep us interested from beginning to end?

That is the question in the new movie Marty Supreme.

He stars as a working class heel aiming to become a table tennis champion in the 1950s.

It's a head rush that bucks many of the typical sports movie tropes and features an eclectic

supporting cast that includes Gwyneth Paltrow and Tyler the creator.

I'm Linda Holmes.

And I'm Aisha Harris.

Joining us today on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour is podcast producer and film and culture critic Kate Young. Welcome

back, Kate. Hi, I'm really excited for this one. Yes, I am supremely excited to talk about this with you all.

So Marty Supreme stars Timothy Shalemy as Marty Mouser, a brat, a scoundrel, a hustler, and an aspiring world champion in table tennis.

He's very loosely based on real-life champion Marty Reisman.

It's 1952, and Marty stuck working in his uncle's shoe store so that he can save up to

compete in London.

He eventually gets there, but this movie is less about the game of table tennis that it is

about naked ambition in an American male hubris.

Marty will do pretty much anything to get what he wants, including Rob and Steele, and pretty much no one in his orbit is safe, not his

best friend Wally, played by Tyler Accoma, aka Tyler the Creator, or his married girlfriend, Rachel,

played by Odessa A Zion. Even a poor, helpless dog is endangered because of him.

That part really, really got to me during this movie.

When the Palo Trial appears as Kay Stone, a glamorous former movie star turned socialite,

who becomes entangled in some of Marty shenanigans.

The film is directed and co-written by Josh Safdi, who also co-directed and co-wrote Uncut Gems.

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