Challengers
Starring: Zendaya, Mike Faist, Josh O’Connor
Directed By: Luca Guadagnino
Challengers is a thrilling tennis match of a movie exploring relationship dynamics, power struggles, and the quest for greatness. Tashi Duncan (Zendaya) is at the height of her tennis stardom on the way to play for Stanford when she meets Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor) and Art Donaldson (Mike Faist), two men who will change her life forever. Patrick is a hothead with an intense passion for the game. Art takes a more disciplined approach towards tennis. Both men vie for her affection, viewing Tashi as the ultimate prize. When a career-ending injury takes Tashi out of the game, she has to pivot. She marries Art and becomes his coach. The years pass leading them to a challenger match against none other than Patrick. It’s a tangled web of twists, triumphs, and tennis.
Director Luca Gudagnino adapts an excellent screenplay by Justin Kuritzkes that is razor-sharp exploring the mental and psychosexual relationship between Tashi, Art, and Patrick, and what drives them on and off the court. Throughout the film, we see that Tashi is purely motivated by a love of tennis. It drives her life. Art is motivated by his love of Tashi. He will do anything she says with blind adoration worshipping the very idea of her. Patrick is the loose cannon, a hothead who can’t be controlled. He loves both Art and Tashi but his unpredictability is something that can’t be tamed, a nuisance to Tashi.
Gudagnino goes for a nonlinear narrative structure so the timeline travels through a decade in scattered fragments. There are times the various timelines were a bit confusing, considering they are all over the place but it’s a payoff in the ending sequence, which is probably the most thrilling tennis scene I’ve seen on film.
On a technical level, this film is stellar. The cinematography is phenomenal. As someone who does not care about tennis, the tennis sequences are thrilling thanks to the camera work by Sayombhu Mukdeeprom. There are several times the camera glides through the frame as if it’s a tennis ball. There are sequences of visual storytelling that I really appreciated. One in particular in the third act is a shock that takes place without anyone saying a single word. It’s a masterclass in showing, without telling.
The music is also insanely good. Not to get too dramatic, but I want this music to play over every moment of my life. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have a way of creating film scores that feel so current and compelling. Long have I waited to say such words…this is like the second coming of The Social Network score. The score amplifies the character’s actions and the matches that they play. Every time a song begins to play, it feels like the music becomes a central character in the film with its frenetic and exhilarating beats.
This section contains semi-spoiler talk
This movie would fail without compelling actors considering it hinges on the dynamics and thankfully, the leads deliver. Zendaya is the stoic mastermind Tashi, attempting to coach Art and Patrick’s every move. They think they are winning her over, but she is pulling the strings. She delivers a great performance here. To me, the standout of the film is Mike Faist as Art who adores Tashi but never receives the same adoration in return. She molds him into the tennis star that she was supposed to become. Without tennis, their relationship is little else. Faist plays Art with an eager hopefulness in the early scenes that gives way to worn-down sadness in the later acts.
Josh O’Connor is so smarmy as Patrick, a washed-up pro hoping to recapture the glory days of his youth. His relationship dynamic with Tashi is super intriguing as he tells it to her like it is, not what she wants to hear. O’Connor is intimidating and passionate as Patrick, the polar opposite of Art. They are on opposing sides of the court in a literal sense and metaphorically in Tashi’s life.
The film excellently uses tennis as a metaphor for the dynamics of the central relationships.
It’s interesting because I’ve read a lot of interpretations of the characters since watching the film. All 3 characters are very flawed individuals who use each other for competitive and personal gain. Maybe I’m being dumb or maybe it’s Mike Faist in his red backward baseball cap (you either get it or you don’t) but I left that theater an Art apologist. I’ve read a lot of different opinions from others who have called him the villain of the film. I completely disagree with that assessment, but I love it when a movie can spark debates and get people talking about character motivation!
Spoiler talk over
Challengers is the best film I’ve seen so far this year. It’s a thrilling mix of twisted relationship drama, power dynamics, and tennis matches. It is technically sleek and keeps you guessing until its final seconds.
My Rating: 9/10