Challengers Review: A Heart-Pulsing Good Time!

In less than ten years, Luca Guadagnino has created a powerful name for himself as a director. Although A Bigger Splash was noteworthy, Call Me By Your Name shot Guadagnino into the spotlight while also making Timothée Chalamet a brand new rising star. From romantic dramas to horrors like Suspiria and Bones and All, Luca’s step into the world of tennis was a relatively bold move in retrospect but in the scope of his talent and ability to always incorporate a sensual nature to his films, Challengers fits right into his style.

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Zendaya, Mike Faist, and Josh O’Connor dazzle as three tennis players in their prime. Tashi Duncan (Zendaya) suffers from an injury halting her career, thus coaching her now husband Art (Faist) as he tries to make a comeback. At a Challenger match in Rochelle, New York Art discovers he must play his former best friend, Patrick (O’Connor), bringing back up memories of friendship, love, and matches beyond the tennis court. Challengers is a highly intense and provocative drama that is elevated by the film’s performances and Guadagnino’s handle on the sexiness and gut wrenching nature of relationships.

Cinematically, Luca Guadagino knows how to assemble a team of pros who not only excel but demolish their respective arts, bringing in new talent and experts. Justin Kuritzkes’ screenwriting is perfectly simulated to highlight Guadagnino’s signature sexy style while developing this element into a story about lovers and friends, and how these relationships often play within the same court.

The way the ball hits the audience during the tennis sequences has the same impact as the onscreen chemistry between Zendaya, Faist, and O’Connor, whipping our heads from place to place unsure of who will be the winner. Marco Costa’s editing is award worthy as he strikes a balance of quickness and steadiness that never gives the audience whiplash. With veterans Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross on sound, it is impossible not to feel the score coursing through your veins, amping up the foreplay before the main events.

Challenger’s ability to portray male comradery and intimacy on various levels. The triangle between our three athletes and the depth within each combination of their history and present tensions could be full films within themselves. It is impossible to pinpoint which relationship falls first in the standings because of how Guadagnino and Kuritzkes formulates the film’s structure around what each athlete brings to the story.

However, what could have simply been a story of Tashi getting in between two male best friends, it is without question at the center of Challenger’s is the obstacles set forth between two men who are meant to be together, whether that be platonically or romantically. Why must we put boundaries on how we look at intimacy between males to be the former or the latter? The movie greatly utilizes its premise of tennis to structure its story where sometimes there is an “easy” back and forth in relationships and sometimes passion can create a “game” impossible to look away from.

Challengers also displays the pressure athletes face on the court that goes into their own selfish actions off the court. Tashi and Patrick say many times in the film that they either don’t want their only talent in life to be hitting a ball with a racket or that it may be their only skill. The characters are written to exemplify how humans can only act and think to reflect all that they have ever known.

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Therefore, the way athletes will often do what is in their own best interest to win, we see our characters making decisions in their lives that the audience sees as egocentric but never goes against what they stand for. For better or for worse, Luca Guadagnino and Kuritzkes stay consistent in their characterizations of Tashi, Patrick, and Art. Challengers is a must see for anyone who appreciates the art of sports, filmmaking, or a heart-pulsing good time.

‘Challengers’ Rating – 4.5/5

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