WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT IT, HOW far removed is determination from obsession? They may not be siblings, but I feel they are certainly cousins. I do not believe you can have one without the other. As a kid, I played ping pong several times; usually, on vacation where the hotel would have a ping pong table in their game room, or at someone’s house. It was not until freshman year of college where I began to take the game seriously. For one thing, the friend I made who lived across the hall from me was an avid player. He even had his own ping pong paddle. Every week, at least once or twice, we would walk over to the student center to play the game. In the beginning, I was awful. The main reason was because he pretty much played as if he were in a tournament. He would put different spins on the ball that drove me crazy because the ball seemed to never bounce the same way twice. Also, he enjoyed spiking the ball, where I would then have to chase it down before anyone stepped on it. Sure I got frustrated and angry at times, but I was determined to figure out how I could get better to at least have longer rallies between points. Every time we played I studied how he held the paddle, how he moved his arm during the serve, and how he shifted from side to side. It was not until two months into my sophomore year, that I finally beat him for the first time. He then quit playing the game, saying he had too much studying to do for the semester.      I AM SURE SOME PEOPLE WOULD have given up playing with him a long time ago, but I have always had tendencies to be obsessive. As a little boy, I would work on a jigsaw puzzle all day, because I wanted it to be done before i went to bed. There was a little tile game I had where there was only one open space and you would have to shift all the tiles around until you could get a particular tile to the very top. Even today, after having recently discovered that one should remove the skins from garbanzo beans, I can stand by the sink for hours making sure i removed the skin from each bean that came out of the can. Like many things, this obsessiveness ebbs and flows through me; some days I can stop focusing on something in a reasonable time, but other days I become laser focused to the point I tune out everything else around me. This is probably why I thoroughly enjoyed this sports drama.      PEOPLE MAY DISRESPECT HIM, THE GAME he played was not getting much respect, but it did not stop this young man’s determination to keep pushing forward until he could finally play in the world championship tournament. As far as he was concerned he was the best in the world. With Timothee Chalamet (A Complete Unknown, Dune franchise) as Marty Mauser, Gwyneth Paltrow (Iron Man franchise, Mortdecai) as Kay Stone, Odessa A’zion (Hellraiser, Sitting in Bars with Cake) as Rachel Mizler, Larry ‘Ratso’ Sloman (Uncut Gems, Satan’s Little Helper) as Murray Norkin, and Fran Drescher (The Nanny-TV, After Class) as Rebecca Mauser; I thought the cast’s acting was outstanding. The pace through most of the film was fast paced, it took a little time for me to fall into its rhythm, but once I was in synch the time flew by. As a period piece, I thought the sets, costumes, and dialog were spot on. I think if the duration of this picture was a little shorter, it would have been perfect. By the last quarter of the film, I was getting a bit antsy. Still, with such powerful acting and a wild story line, I believe it would be hard for someone not to get invested in Marty’s life; even if you have never played the game of ping pong.             

3 1/2 stars