It’s the start of May, and we’re now officially entering the start of summer blockbuster season. Over the coming months, the major film studios will be releasing several high profile movies in theatres including A24’s Love Lies Bleeding, and Yorgos Lanthimos’ follow-up to the award winning Poor Things – Kinds of Kindness. Before all of these, one film staking a strong claim to the title of ‘Movie of the Summer’ is Challengers.
Challengers is the new film from Italian director Luca Guadagnino and American writer Justin Kuritzkes. Luca is best known for 2017’s Call Me By Your Name, and perhaps more controversially, his Suspiria remake from 2018. Kuritzkes meanwhile is the husband of Celine Song, who directed last year’s brilliant Past Lives. With their latest release – Challengers – Guadagnino and Justin Kuritzkes turns their eyes to the world of professional tennis. The duo have created an engrossing dramedy that explores how the competitiveness of professional athletes can spill over into life off the court.
I had the opportunity to see Challengers a couple of weeks ago at an advanced preview screening. Here are my thoughts on the film, and why it will appear on numerous ‘Best of’ list come the end of 2024.
Challengers opens with a scene taking place in October 2019. Two as-yet-unknown male tennis players are competing in the finals of a tournament at New Rochelle, NY. Watching this match intently is a mysterious woman. Challengers flashes back in time to two weeks earlier. Here we learn that the woman is former teenage tennis prodigy Tashi Duncan(Zendaya). We also learn hat the blonde haired competitor in the match is her husband, Art Donaldson (Mike Faist). Art is an elite-level tennis player, and is one US Open win away from completing a career Grand Slam. However recent injuries have saw him suffer a slump in form. This results is his coach – Tashi – entering him as a wildcard for the Challenger event in New Rochelle. Tashi hopes a win at New Rochelle will boost Art’s confidence ahead of the US Open.
We then catch up with the other competitor from the tennis match from Challengers’ opening scene: Patrick Zweig. Patrick is a down on his luck former teenage sensation. When we are first introduced to him, he is unsuccessfully begging a motel owner to forego a credit check on his credit card so he can stay the night. After his request is repeatedly rejected, he ends up spending the eve of the Challenger tournament sleeping rough in his car outside the venue.
After introducing our three main characters, Challengers flashes back even farther in time to 2006. We are introduced to Patrick and Art as teenagers. The duo are a promising tennis doubles team, who have just won the boys’ junior titles at the US Open. Afterwards they encounter Tashi at a party, with Patrick particularly in awe of the young starlet. Infatuated by Tashi’s confidence and reputation as a tennis player, the he duo invite her to their hotel room. Tashi shows up at Art and Patrick’s room, playfully toying with the boys. With Art and Patrick due to face off the following day in the final of the boy’s junior singles tournament, Tashi promises the winner her phone number.
This romantic tryst proves to be a pivotal moment in the lives of Art, Patrick and Tashi. Over the course of the next two hours, director Luca Guadagnino takes us on a journey that volleys back and forth in time as we encounter our three leads at key moments in their lives.
At the heart of Challengers is a scintilating career-best performance as Tashi Donaldson, nee Duncan. Zendaya portrayal of Tashi as a confident and charismatic rising star on the tennis scene is mesmerising, and Zendaya’s charisma shines throughout the film. There is also a steeliness and determination to Tashi that Zendaya gets to showcase in some of the more dramatic moments after the characters suffers a career-ending injury.
Perhaps the most compelling aspect about the character of Tashi is her competitiveness and desire to dominate her opponents. This aspect of Tashi’s character is introduced early on in Challengers. Tashi is reviewing an advertisement for a promotional campaign for Aston Martin featuring the Donaldsons. The slogan for the ad campaign says “Game Changer”. However Tashi instantly circles the word “changer” and adds to an ‘s’ to the end. This instantly lets us the view knows that Tashi sees herself every bit the equal of her superstar husband, and also gives us a insight into who wields the power in their relationship.
The other aspect of Tashi’s personality that Challengers explores in depth is her manipulativeness. This character trait is best demonstrated early in the film when Tashi first visits Art and Patrick. After toying with them, she sit herself on one of their beds. Both boys join her on the bed and start kissing her on the neck. From here the sexual tension between the trio significantly ramps up. Before things can escalate to sex, Tashi leans back and watches Art and Patrick as they unknowingly and passionately kiss each other. As this encounter unfolds, the camera focuses on Tashi’s expression This encounter shows up that Tashi draws a huge amount of pleasure from being able to control those around her, and making people around her “earn” her respect/love.
Another example of this manipulative nature occurs later in the film. In one scene Tashi use Art’s insecurities around their marriage and Patrick’s sudden reappearance. Art informs here he plans on retiring after the US Open regardless of whether or not he wins the tournament. Tashi responds by telling him she’ll leave him if he loses to Patrick. This declaration by Tashi is a ploy to motivate Art ahead of their match. She then sneaks away at midnight to meet Patrick, who she convinces to deliberately lose to Art in exchange for sex.
Besides Zendaya’s standout performance as Tashi, the other aspect of Challengers that caught my attention were its breathtaking tennis matches. The tennis matches littered throughout Challengers are an adrenaline rush, having a visceral quality to them that I absolutely loved. Trent Reznor and Atticus Rose’s blood-pumping techno score enhances these adrenaline-filled scenes. Cinematographer Sayomphu Mukdiphrom leans the into back-and-forth nature on these on-court skirmishes at several points by shooting the crowd’s heads following the on-court action in sync to the film’s soundtrack. Towards the end of the film, these tennis exchanges play out from the first person perspective of Art and Patrick. The use of shaky came here is brilliant, and you get a real feeling of the intensity of the tennis they’re playing.
Featuring a breakout lead performance from Zendaya, Challengers is a stylish and sexy sports drama. It is a thrilling and highly-watchable film, and one I am certain will captivate audiences. If you’re looking for something to watch this weekend, make sure to go see Challengers, as it’s the first great movie of the summer!
Challengers is currently showing in cinemas across the UK/Ireland.