Challengers is a fast-paced drama broken into many different time periods over the span of our characters’ complex lives.
There’s a love triangle, there’s tennis, and there’s sex. Luca Guadagnino serves up another excellently directed drama that will go to any length to entertain the viewer. Every scene feels like the next opportunity to make you smile solely from technical merit alone. Meanwhile, the screenplay confidently holds information from the audience, only to release it at the most opportune moment. From beginning to end, Challengers is a feast of entertainment that will leave you blushing and sweating.
Tashi Duncan (Zendaya) stars as the former teenage tennis star turned coach after a gruesome injury, just as her career began to take off. Her sole client is her husband, Art Donaldson (Mike Faist), a tennis legend looking to complete his trophy collection and recapture his pride by winning the US Open. Under Tashi’s guidance, Art looks to build his way back to the top after suffering a minor injury that has set his game back a couple of levels. Tashi has the idea to enrol Art into a low-level championship in hope that he will regain his confidence. The characters soon learn the match is against Art’s longtime estranged best friend Patrick (Josh O’Connor). The story uses this match as a jumping off point to show an array of flashbacks explaining how we ended up in this intense situation.
We quickly find tennis to be a lively backdrop for the boiling emotions that go on between the three tennis pros. Lust and ecstasy desire to be at the forefront of the story in a genre that typically demands scoreboards over emotions. Justin Kuritzkes has wisely devised a script that focuses on the sweaty euphoria of these three young lovers first and foremost, though the desires are blanketed under a layer of uneasiness that is only unveiled on the court. Tennis is where these people thrive, it’s where they love.
Exhilarating flashback sequences feature the trio flirting up a storm of sexual tension. This immediately piques our interest, since we know where it all ends. Watching two boys trip over themselves to get the girl is hilarious and charming as ever. It’s done so effortlessly, it’s that more brutal when the story urges us to pick a side. The constant flipping between past and present creates a perfectly driving narrative that will have you on the edge of your seat from start to finish.
Guadagnino’s direction not only works on the court with creative point-of-view shots and exhilarating editing, but also off the court, where we catch sly smiles from the excellent Zendaya; this has us questioning if this is all part of her master plan. This all plays alongside one of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ best scores to date, as a thumping electronic baseline picks up our heartbeat and runs with it. The score’s perfectly crunchy nature exudes an erotic pulse that highlights all aspects of the film.
It’s that strong style that carries Challengers to another level. Its dynamic characters are kept distant yet, through the time-jumping narrative, we pick away at what makes them tick. Desire is their drug and their bliss. This movie doesn’t just want to expose their lust, it wants to expose their desires. No matter how hard they try to hide it, it all comes out on the court.
Fun Fact:
To prepare for her role, Zendaya spent three months with pro tennis player-turned-coach, Brad Gilbert.
COMMENTS