I had no real expectations going into Challengers.
That’s not to say I didn’t think it would be good, mind you. A lot of folks whose opinions I respect had been singing its praises, and there was little reason to doubt their sincerity.
But at the same time, I was about ready to conclude that Luca Guadagnino, previously the director of such similarly acclaimed films as Call Me By Your Name and Bones and All, simply wasn’t for me. Guadagnino knows how to frame a shot, and has a particular eye for scenic vistas and beautiful backgrounds, but rarely have I found myself connecting with the characters in the foreground. More so than most directors working today, Guadagnino is a “vibes” filmmaker, and it’s not easy to get on his wavelength.
So no, I wasn’t particularly excited about Challengers, Guadagnino’s latest behind-the-camera effort. The fact that the film centered on tennis (a sport I’ve never particularly cared for) and seemed to center its marketing less on a compelling story than on the nuclear hotness of its three leads did not help. But in the interest of fairness (and not having much else to do on a quiet Sunday afternoon), I decided to give the movie a shot.
And folks, I loved it.
Challengers is one of the most exhilarating films I’ve seen on the big screen in several months, second only to Civil War (another great film undercut by a misguided marketing campaign) in terms of sheer entertainment. It’s the first Guadagnino film I’ve not only engaged with, but am eager to revisit.
The story follows a trio of young tennis players – rising female star Tashi (Zendaya) and the two young men, Patrick (Josh O’Connor) and Art (Mike Faist), who are both smitten with her – across more than a decade of serving and volleying, with plenty of competition both on and off the court. What starts as a seriocomic love triangle grows more intense as the teens progress into adulthood and begin facing choices in life that extend far beyond their ability to swing a racket. The rivalry between the two lads – exacerbated after Tashi rejects one of them outright – intensifies through the years, and is made manifest when they at last face each other as rivals on the court.
The success of Challengers hinges on a number of variables, and thankfully Guadagnino and his team (including screenwriter and former YouTube goof Justin Kuritzkes) don’t miss a single serve. The story is told out of sequence, opening just before the big final match and then jumping back to the lead-up to the event, before hopping further back to the boys’ original meeting with Tashi thirteen years earlier, and then hopscotching back and forth between the three time periods throughout the story. Such a stylistic choice could easily have come off as gimmicky, a Nolan-esque flourish designed to distract and confuse rather than enlighten. Yet despite the shifting timeframe, the story never feels muddled or messy. The screenplay carefully parcels out information about the three leads and their history as the viewers need it, letting certain puzzle pieces linger in the air before snapping into place at the most opportune moments. (There are also plenty of subtle touches – both in the technology and the physical appearance of the main characters – to remind us exactly where the story is each time it skips to another time period.)
The structure of the film serves a more subliminal purpose as well. The story is designed to have the feel of a tennis match, with dramatic rises and falls coinciding with each major volley in the present day (or as “present” as the film gets – the contemporary scenes take place in 2019, presumably to avoid any Covid-related questions). By getting swept up in the emotional beats of the story, we also get swept up in the structural beats of the game – making it all the more exciting when the two intertwine at the climax.
And “exciting” is certainly the word to describe the tennis sequences. Guadagnino films each court match with kinetic verisimilitude, lending energy to each swing of the racket and weight to each thwack of the ball. The camera swoops up and along and around the field, providing the sort of dynamic entertainment that Battle of the Sexes could only dream of. At times, the camerawork is a little too showy – one dizzying point where the camera appears to film the match from the ball’s perspective feels jarringly out of place – but most of the visual technique pays off spectacularly well. (A special tip of the cap to scoring powerhouses Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, who infuse each tennis match sequence with a pulse-pounding techno beat that ramps up the excitement all through the final match.)
But none of this would work, of course, without the casting, particularly in a film that is centered so exclusively around just three characters. And thankfully, the film scores a trio of bullseyes.
Zendaya may be best known to TV fans for her work on the adult series (regardless of how many teenagers secretly watch it) Euphoria, but much of her big-screen work has been in genre fare like the Dune and Spider-Man franchises. With Challengers, she undertakes her first unmistakably “grown-up” role, and delivers one of the year’s best performances thus far. Her Tashi is sympathetic, yet also mysterious, stringing her two paramours along in a way that initially leaves us unsure of which one her heart truly belongs to, until we gradually learn that she simply loves manipulating both of them above all else. Tashi sees tennis as less of a sport of strength than a psychological battle of wills, and the cryptic smile she gives upon tricking young Art and Patrick into kissing one another suggests a woman who’s always thinking several steps ahead of those around her. Zendaya plays all and more, to the hilt.
Her two costars are equally well-cast, delivering the best work thus far in their young careers. Mike Faist has previously done good work as the cunning Riff in Spielberg’s West Side Story remake, and Josh O’Connor made for a solid Prince Charles in the middle seasons of The Crown. But here, they embody their roles, each one engendering sympathy in a script that never contrives us to take a side between them. I may slightly prefer Faist’s performance, if only because O’Connor’s British accent occasionally peeks through during his more impassioned rants. But there’s no denying that either actor shows plenty of promise in the years ahead of them.
Challengers may not be for every taste, particularly those viewers who – like myself- haven’t clicked with Guadagnino’s work in the past. But it’s a stellar achievement, and one of the early cinematic highlights of 2024. Buy the ticket for the tennis scenes alone.
Challengers is currently playing in theaters.
Critically Touched 