MOVIE INFO:
From visionary filmmaker Luca Guadagnino, Challengers stars Zendaya as Tashi Duncan, a former tennis prodigy turned coach and a force of nature who makes no apologies for her game on and off the court. Married to a champion on a losing streak (Mike Faist – West Side Story), Tashi’s strategy for her husband’s redemption takes a surprising turn when he must face off against the washed-up Patrick (Josh O’Connor – The Crown) — his former best friend and Tashi’s former boyfriend. As their pasts and presents collide, and tensions run high, Tashi must ask herself, what will it cost to win.
REVIEW:
The director, Luca Guadagnino has been alternating projects between drama and horror since the start of his career. After a two year break the pendulum swings to drama with Challengers, a love triangle semi-romance and professional payback piece taking place on the professional tennis circuit. It features Zendaya as the object of desire, and Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor, as Art and Patrick, the desirers- once long time friends now rivals romantically and professionally. Challengers is a fizzy, slightly sexy tease that’s emotionally bloodless. It’s a welcome change of tone for Guadagnino.
The movie jumps back and forth in time during a high stakes match between the two with career and life altering consequences. The narrative may be twisty and self-tortured, but it’s pretty straight forward.
The three friends, lovers and foes are all prodigies with something to prove and struggles they must come back from. Tashi (Zendaya) the brightest talent of the three, had to retire when she suffers a career ending injury. She is now coaching her now husband, Art (Faist). Art is a former Grand Slam champ suffering a lack of confidence and in a career spiral. Tashi in an attempt to save Art’s career and encourage a comeback narrative from the press, enters him in a lower echelon challenger tournament, one she thinks Art can easily dominate and win.
The tournament takes place in New Rochelle, New York. It’s a short drive to Flushing, the Queens home of the U.S. Open, which Art has yet to win. Their Tashi reconnects with Art’s long time friend and her once boyfriend (they once engaged in a threesome), Patrick (O’Connor). Patrick plays below the level of his talent and often flames out during the more equal competitors in the semi-finals. He’s a perpetual also ran slumming in the tennis minor league. The twist- Art has never been able to beat Patrick when they casually play each other. It’s no surprise the two will meet in the finals. As the story jumps from past to present, youth to adulthood, time begins to blur- we notice the three’s relationship dynamics don’t change very much, just move focus to whomever is Toshi’s lover at the time.
Zendaya, Faist and O’Connor all have screen appeal. Zendaya having the more opaque and symbolic character tends to get lost occasionally in the silent emotional nuances being exchanged between the Faist and O’Connor. Guadagnino’s teases the audience with hints the two may have gay crushes on each other, and Tashi may not be their ultimate prize. The intensity of their competition in everything suggests that. They each zealously wants what the other has. They’re also very pretty , and Guadagnino being the ultimate directorial tease that he is, loves getting them together in various states of undress. All three are lit so that they seem to glow both externally and internally. Add tense muscles, the anguish gaze, the micro bits of jealousy and rage that are exchanged volley for volley, those sweaty bodies going for the win with every ounce of their being in the final showdown, and you have the most thrilling and sexually ambivalent movie ending of the last five years.
Faist does a good job opening up the puppyish Art character. Faist lets you see Art’s vulnerability. It makes him sympathetic but also sad.
However, O’Connor manages to generate the greatest character depth of the three. He’s off-putting with a bravura swagger. He’s the tease character Guadagnino really wants the audience to focus on. Zendaya’s Tashi is just the sweet object of desire as decoy, the false idol. O’Connor smolders clothed, sizzles when he drops his towel and disrobes. The audience never knows whether this is gamesmanship or earnest flirting. Add confidence to the Patrick mystique package and there’s a constant erotic charge that fires up Tashi and Art.
Challengers just wants to engage and entertain. It says anything important through its characters, who prefer to glide along the surfaces of life. They do it nicely and with style. So does the movie.
Challengers gets a3.5/5 or a B+.
CREDITS:
Directed by
Written by
Produced by
- Luca Guadagnino
- Rachel O’Connor
- Amy Pascal
- Zendaya
Starring
- Zendaya
- Josh O’Connor
- Mike Faist
Cinematography
Edited by
Marco Costa
Music by
Production
companies
- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
- Why Are You Acting?
- Frenesy Film Company
- Pascal Pictures
Distributed by
- Amazon MGM Studios (United States)
- Warner Bros. Pictures(International)
Release dates
- March 26, 2024(Sydney)
- April 26, 2024(United States)
Running time
131 minutes[1]
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$55 million[2]
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