Challengers

Apparently, it seems a requirement to star in a tennis movie after playing the key love interest role in a Spider-Man franchise.

Strange, coincidental jokes aside, Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers isn’t really a tennis movie at all despite featuring an awful lot of the sport.

Instead, the game is merely a conduit in which to channel the trauma, aggression, obsession, and competition of a decade long tryst.

Two young tennis prodigies Art and Patrick obsess over Tashi, seemingly the next superstar of the sport. A career ending injury, a match to win her number and a marriage all come into play as we explore the depths of this relationship between the three of them.

The framing device is a game between Art and Patrick in a small tournament in the present day. As this plays out we revisit key moments in their history and each point, each flex of muscle and each glance between the pair takes on further significance.

It’s a tactile film with each bead of sweat and hit of a ball feeling huge. It works as a perfect metaphor for the lust and feelings shared between the main characters.

There’s also strong use of slow-mo and some nice first person shots, it glorifies sport as a performance of the body and is far beyond the confines of the standard ‘sports film.’

Three exceptional performances anchor the whole thing and make every line of the sharp dialogue sing as they should and every look stain the screen with resentment, envy, hatred or love. Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor have great chemistry and both brilliantly capture the inherent sadness, but also charm, of their respective players but this is, of course, Zendaya’s movie.

The entire film relies on her capturing every moment perfectly, remaining the focus but also aloof, distant and unobtainable and it’s a perfect, awards-worthy portrayal.

The pulsing score keeps the tension high but can, in its contrapuntal moments, come across as polarising. Its use during conversation scenes can sometimes heighten the drama but also cut across the dialogue.

Likewise, some of the timeline jumps are a little tricky to keep track of. The final quarter has one flashback which blurs a little too much with the present day. The ending is also a divisive one, you can guess a particular moment which, for me, would have been the perfect time to roll the credits but instead it rolls on to a climactic moment which, while drenched in metaphor and open to interpretation, isn’t quite as neat.

A pulse-pounding romantic drama in more ways than one and a lustful and dramatic depiction of a romance that makes and breaks brothers, friends and families. A strong serve and volley from Guadagnino.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️