Challengers (2024) Review

As Challengers finished, I sat in my seat for a few minutes feeling flushed and flustered, which means that director Luca Guadagnino did a very good job in executing this horny, petty, and slightly campy, tennis-as-sex metaphor romantic sports movie. It captures of the intensity of the sport as well as the unspoken drama and personal games we play behind closed doors. It’s a movie about making things count.

Tashi Duncan (Zendaya) is an athlete whose fire blown was out too soon after sustaining a career-ending injury, but is reignited as simmering flame of quiet rage. The girl can be taken out of the sport, you absolutely cannot take the sport out of the girl. Tashi thrives around competition, even if it means putting herself between two former best friends in order to get that satisfaction. Zendaya transforms Tashi from a vibrant, young tennis star into a steely support system for Art and their empire.

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After all, with apologies to Patrick (Josh O’Connor) and Art (Mike Faist), tennis is Tashi’s one true love. She kind of says it all when she asks Art when she said she needed someone to be in love with her. As a teen, she describes the almost euphoric feeling of being on the court in a way that makes her eyes glitter; a look that has been replaced with a permanently furrowed brow as an adult forced on the sidelines. She turns her shrewd observation, keeping her plans and feelings close to her chest. She’s not entirely uncaring though, but it’s more of a tough love she wields after being so trusting and hopeful in a previously planned life. It almost doesn’t matter (and not really the point of) who she’s with, as long as she’s near tennis.

As close as Patrick and Art are when they were teens, it’s still a friendship that really exists in competition and especially in regards to Tashi. (After all, the only time we see them all in one location together as adults is at the challenger.) As doubles partners on the same team, Patrick and Art are Fire and Ice, two exuberant young men reveling in the thrill of tennis. I’m assuming that the more audacious Patrick is Fire and the measured Art is the Ice that is transformed into something less rigid by Fire. We see the ways that Patrick encourages or antagonizes Art, while Art painfully tries to be the bigger man.

But playing against each other is a different story. We see how different they are. It’s almost like watching Andy Samberg and Kit Harrington’s characters from the already satirical 7 Days in Hell (2015) brought to life. Patrick is a feral man who dresses like tennis’ Happy Gilmore and Art is a noble babygirl come to life. O’Connor puts his charming, shit-eating grin to work and Faist is a patient, devoted force with his compassionate puppy dog eyes and slight chip on his shoulder. And I know I’m in my Taylor Swift-himbo era, but I would gladly let these two with their big ears ruin my life.

The non-linear structure allows audiences to stay present with the characters as thirteen years of their shared, fucked-up history is revealed in passing dialogue or in flashbacks. The scenes we do see take place in the spaces outside of the major set pieces we’d typically see in romance films. Even the present-day showdown doesn’t go down at the US Open; it happens at a challenger in New Rochelle and by pure happenstance. This film repeatedly focuses on embracing the unexpected.

Guadagnino’s trusted cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom utilizes various techniques to capture all the different dramatic factors at play. He sensually captures the athletic form in close-ups, mimics the visual sensation of voyeuristic floating when using binoculars to see the athletes on the court, and has fun with dizzying tennis ball POV shots. Though, possibly the main or outlying element that pushes this movie toward camp, is the borderline abuse of slow-mo. People were giggling in our screening and I don’t blame them. When used to punctuate the end of scenes after a tense conversation and feels soap opera-y. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Additionally, the performances and editing really sell this troubled dynamic between them all. With sport that demands total silence, the looks tell everything that needs to be said between the three leads. Personally, if I were the tennis official or anyone sitting in the stands, I would definitely tell that something was up. How was there only one time violation?! I’m sure the tension could be cut with a knife. All three of their perfect faces emoted the hell out of these scenes. On the other hand, the edit also makes interesting decisions to use the reverse wide shot to show the other person’s reaction from a distance. It’s really meant to emphasize these athlete’s physicality in conversations when words are not enough, so I appreciate highlighting both the exaggerated and the subtle performances.

The score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is cheeky and pulsating, sometimes coming in hot and jarring out of total silence. It shares a lot of elements with their score for The Social Network - hypnotic and ultimately a little depraved, which is so opposite to the idea of tennis as “a gentleman’s sport”.

All of these elements are ramped up into a sweaty, spiraling, blustery third act. Thirteen years of this tension literally blows up the blue skies and crisp whites of proper tennis culture. Or rather, it seems like the worst of the raging winds has done its damage, but it’s the lingering effects that cause the most damage. The music is going, the camera has become a character of its own, and these guys are DRIPPING sweat and shooting each other the nastiest looks. However, this is what Tashi has been orchestrating, like she has been since the night they met. She knows each of their playing weaknesses and is manipulating them reach that feeling of ecstacy she hasn’t in a while.

Everyone is hot, I loved it, the vibes were tense but unserious, and will probably watch it many more times in theaters and my life time. It’s a movie that gave me such a thrill that I hope it texts me back.

As for what this movies this reminds me of: Challengers is like if The Social Network (2010) and Design for Living (1933) had a baby and Wimbledon (2004) is her brother. A non-linear professional fall out and jealousy between two friends and the different relationships they had with the same woman set against the high-pressure setting of a tennis tournaments. Sassy one-liners. Women who dgaf. Fighting against proper behavior.

xx Francesca

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