Movie Review – Challengers
Principal Cast : Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, Mike Faist, Darnell Appling, Nada Despotovich, AJ Lister.
Synopsis: Tashi, a former tennis prodigy turned coach, turned her husband into a champion. But to overcome a losing streak, he needs to face his ex-best friend and Tashi’s ex-boyfriend.
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Although tennis is arguably one of the least-entertaining sport film sub-genres, there’s a case to be made for any film in which two young lads try to seduce Zendaya as a key aspect of the plot. Okay, this isn’t Wimbledon or Match Point (although I would suggest Challengers is far closer to the latter than the former in its sweaty, tension-filled plotting) but Luca Guadagnino’s energetic – nay, frenzied – courtside lusty sports-drama may just be the adrenaline jolt we need after the saccharine tones of the relatively recent King Richard. This is a hell of a sexy film, a great tennis film, and a crowd-pleasing turn from Zendaya as a focused and driven coach/manager turns the heat up on this line-ball call for film of the year.
Challengers‘ non-linear plot revolves around Tashi Duncan (Zendaya), a former tennis prodigy who has transitioned into a coach. Tashi is married to Art Donaldson (Mike Faist), a once-promising player whose career has been marred by injuries. Tashi works as Art’s coach and manager, trying to reignite his faltering career. Their relationship is put to the test when Art is set to compete in a prestigious tournament, where he must face off against Patrick (Josh O’Connor), a former friend and Tashi’s ex-lover. The tension is palpable as past rivalries and old wounds resurface, creating a high-stakes atmosphere both on and off the court.
Director Luca Guadagnino burst into the Hollywood mainstream with his breakout hit, Call Me By Your Name, a slow-burn romantic drama from 2017 that snagged a Best Picture Oscar nomination. Although his Suspiria remake and Bones & All were well received, I think with Challengers he has his first serious effort to return to Oscar contention with this exquisitely written, acted and filmed piece of art. There’s shades of Lynch, Tykwer and Neveldine in his direction of Challengers, aping the kind of frenzied on-court action a game like tennis should arouse in a viewer despite very little actual tennis being played. Instead, the white-hot love triangle between Zendaya and Faist opposite O’Connor, which contorts throughout the film’s flippity-floppity timeline delivery, instantly turns a fairly bland “former friends turned enemies” trope into a sexy, liquid-like depiction of three people all with competing motivations for their actions within this circle.
Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor are superb in their respective roles, with O’Connor in particular putting paid to his taciturn portrayal of Prince Charles in The Crown’s latter seasons as a pimply, gangly romantic interest for Zendaya’s more professionally focused Tashi. The trio are the centrepiece of the film, to the point where you barely notice any of the very minor supporting cast at work here, and although her character arc is less settled than the guys’ is, Zendaya turns on the strong, feminine athlete role with determination and skill. There’s a definite chemistry between them all here, and I don’t mean just with Zendaya in the frame – Faist and O’Connor have an underlying sexual tension that’s prevalent even when they seem to loathe each other, much of which anchors the film’s revelatory final act, as the climactic tennis match between the boys kicks into gear. A pivotal moment in a bedroom, in which both boys attempt to seduce Zendaya into a threesome, is incredibly sexy but also hilarious and witheringly tense, a palpable friction between the characters you could almost cut with a knife. I would contend that Faist’s performance as Art isn’t quite as strong as that of Josh O’Connor, but alongside the luminous Zendaya they both stand in her shadow. She’s a “movie star” in this film, and although really inhabiting the tennis world convincingly, her screen presence is leagues ahead of anyone else on the screen.
Guadagnino’s direction is, as mentioned earlier, superb. The film’s brisk pacing and continued jumping through different points in time as our characters’ careers and lives progress, is an interesting manner in which to tease out the various developments of plot along the way, and the way in which the film is shot is a showpiece of framing and design (shout out to Guadagnino’s regular lenser, Thai cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom) and editing (Marco Costa should find himself in contention for the Oscar after this), not to mention score composers Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor, known for the work with David Fincher among many others. Yes, Challengers is a terrific behind-the-camera production in an of itself, regardless of your thoughts on the story and characters, and the film’s tennis sequences are really very well mounted and shot. They reminded me of Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola Run with their technical virtuosity, all while claiming a very Lynchian off-kilter tone and a Brian Neveldine action sensibility to boot – I admit I never would have thought a film of this energy to come from Luca Guadagnino, and I’m incredibly pleased to discover I was wrong.
Spoiling plot points or the story’s subtexts would be to do a disservice to those who are yet to walk into Challengers’ charms. It shouldn’t be looked at as a tennis film, not primarily at least, because it’s the core three performances that anchor the movie to its lusty, turgidly unfulfilled climax; rather, it’s a sports movie about people that works brilliantly, and I can’t recommend it highly enough to those looking for salacious overtones mixed with dark wit and strong characters. Rousing? Perhaps. Entertaining? Absolutely! Challengers is one of the best films of 2024 and you’d be crazy to let this one double-fault.
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