Challengers (2024)
SHOULD I SEE IT?
YES
One of 2024’s best films. Challengers is a wildly entertaining experience that keeps you guessing until the final scene.
Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor all level up with performances that could easily be remembered come awards season in the fall.
Masterfully shot, written, edited and directed, Challengers is not simply a provocative love triangle-tinged sports drama, it digs deep into people’s psyche, vulnerabilities, and asks tough questions about what we can tolerate and withstand in the relationships we carry with us.
NO
If you are expecting a movie mostly about tennis, well friend…I am not sure what to tell you.
If you must have likable characters to enjoy a movie or story, Challengers may not be for you.
You can’t predict how this movie will make you feel. And for some, that will be a really uncomfortable thing to wrestle with.
OUR REVIEW
Full of literal and metaphorical volleys, backhands, and up close exchanges at the net, Challengers is an outstandingly sinister, diabolical, manipulative romantic drama that positions a love triangle as a catalyst for greater success on the tennis court. The movie plays with its audience just as recklessly as the three main characters play with each other. Lurid, amorous, and unpredictable, I simply could not get enough of what director Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name) serves up.
I’ll try and stop with the tennis references. In reality, though much of Challengers is built around a competitive tournament final between two former best friends, tennis is merely the backdrop for a movie about gender roles, sexual identity, relationship sacrifices, and how easily we can manipulate those who invest their trust within us. Fragility lies at the heart of every scene and is partly the reason why it becomes so easy to bond to these characters so intensely.
Told in a non-linear approach, but covering roughly 13 years of time, we first see Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) squaring up to return the serve of Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor). After the exchange is complete, both glance over to Tashi Donaldson (Zendaya), Art’s wife and coach. They take pause and so do we.
Then we travel back those 13 years. Tashi Duncan is the top female amateur tennis player in the world, ready to compete for the U.S. Open Junior Women’s title, the same weekend Art and Patrick capture the Junior U.S. Open doubles championship and are set to face one another for the Junior Men’s trophy. Both become smitten with Tashi and after some awkward flirtation and talk, she agrees to meet them at their hotel.
What occurs in the hotel room is not for me to spoil, but it exposes everyone to vulnerabilities some are more open to exploring than others. With that said, the hotel room scene (which some are already calling the movie scene of the year) signifies a moment that will change everyone’s lives and Tashi becomes a focal point, if not a direct muse, for Art and Patrick’s tennis careers.
By cutting back to present-day 2019 and walking us back through the moments from 2006 to the Challenger tournament which find Art and Patrick inexplicably reconnecting and facing off against each other, editor Marco Costa has us squarely in the palm of his hand. Working with Guadagnino and a masterful screenplay by Justin Kuritzkes, we become riveted, curious and invested in understanding how all these moments lead us to a country club-hosted qualifier in New Rochelle, New York.
The juxtapositions are notable. Tashi is trying to help Art find his confidence once again while Patrick is trying to figure out if he can scrape together enough money and not have to sleep in his car for the night.
In 2019, Art is married to Tashi, they have a daughter and Tashi is his coach. After suffering a debilitating injury in college, Tashi’s tennis shoes were put on the shelf around the time that she and Patrick saw their long-distance relationship implode while she attended Stanford. Over time, in swoops Art and the rest is history. Or is it?
Kuritzkes and Guadagnino turn out to be a great tandem together and Guadagnino is having a ball keeping his audience guessing as to what happens next. In large part, there’s the question of what truly exists within Art and Patrick’s relationship. Plenty of visual cues, both blatant and not as explicit, offer insights into perhaps one character’s desires, but Tashi remains very clearly the sun they revolve around.
Played expertly by Zendaya, Tashi may finally be the role that takes her career to that next level. She is seductive, inviting, and strategic. Her mind is seldom still. Every time we see her, we witness the drive and desire that led to her success on the court fueling her desire to be the best coach she can be. That she lives vicariously through her husband is something Art is fully aware of and Tashi refuses to deny.
Building on a tremendous turn in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, Faist is aces here as a compliant, dedicated, patient man, willing to let Tashi run his life and coach him until his own thoughts on his future may not align with Tashi’s master plan. There are terrific scenes where Art and Tashi circle around each other with looks and words, simultaneously uneasy while finding a spark within each other. What exactly are they attracted to? It’s a question that Guadagnino leaves for us to answer.
O’Connor is equally tremendous as Patrick, the one who seemingly cannot get out of his own way. Uneasy when alone, we always see Patrick connected to someone or something. Without that, he is lost, absent of any roots. He hooks up on Tinder, largely hoping to find a place to stay for the night. But he is a charmer. With one look, he can get someone to give him part of their sandwich or consider giving in to his many requests. We see the Patrick the world sees, but we also get a glimpse of perhaps the person Patrick wants to be and O’Connor creates a layered, complex individual who is as captivating as he is a little bit dangerous.
As we watch these lives intertwine over 13 years, part of what makes Challengers so fun is all the technical proficiency on display. The anachronistic synth/1980s-style score by Oscar winners Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross adds an anxiousness and off-kilter nature to the film that heightens our anticipation for and during key moments.
The cinematography by Sayombu Mukdeeprom is, at times, breathtaking. Whether we see the tennis ball coming directly at us, or the camera capturing numerous angle shifts on the tennis court, his camera forces us to observe and participate.
As a director, Guadagnino is at the top of his game. At no point in Challengers did I feel like I knew how this was going to go. There are surprises for sure, but we get the unique ability of seeing the relationship shift and change between Tashi, Art and Patrick from their respective experiences and insights. We feel their disappointment. We see their excitement. None of them are truly happy, yet seem to illuminate at the most inopportune of moments.
All of it is fascinating, a little naughty, and tremendously fun. Challengers may build to a final match between two former best friends trying to resurrect their careers, with a stern, fierce gaze radiating from Tashi in the stands. But what are they really playing for? And why? For whom? At what cost?
Challengers left me pondering so much on the drive home. Where are a person’s limits and how far can we push ourselves and others for our own material gain? Are we truly committed to helping others achieve their goals or are we simply living vicariously through another person’s success? Where are those boundaries?
Who knows. Maybe everyone is selfish and maybe everyone is broken here. But what an exhilarating adventure we take in trying to figure out the many twists and turns Challengers places in front of us.
CAST & CREW
Starring: Zendaya, Mike Faist, Josh O’Connor, Darnell Appling, Nada Despotovich, A.J. Lister, Hailey Gates
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Written by: Justin Kuritzkes
Release Date: April 26, 2024