Directed By Luca Guadagnino

Starring – Zendaya, Mike Faist, Josh O’Connor

The Plot – Stars Zendaya as Tashi Duncan, a former tennis prodigy turned coach and a force of nature who makes no apologies for her game on and off the court. Married to a champion on a losing streak (Faist), Tashi’s strategy for her husband’s redemption takes a surprising turn when he must face off against the washed-up Patrick (O’Connor), his former best friend and Tashi’s former boyfriend. As their pasts and presents collide, and tensions run high, Tashi must ask herself, what will it cost to win

Rated R for adult language throughout, some sexual content and graphic nudity

CHALLENGERS | Official Trailer (youtube.com)

POSITIVES

Tennis, like sex, is a physical confrontation for dominance involving many scintillating twists and turns for dramatic intensities, and in the depths of a love triangle with no shortage of lived-in history between its characters, “Challengers” evokes high stakes drama that grows stronger the longer its engagement persists. Once again, Guadagnino directs the hell out of this film, with both a variety of angles and sharp edits that maximize the urgency of in-game sequences, feeling unlike anything in sports movies that has ever been previously capably captured, but also in the layers of psychology between his trio of protagonists, which with the help of Justin Kritzkes’ masterful script, brings this amateur game of tennis with around a thousand people watching at most, towards feeling like a conflict with universal stakes to what continuously hangs in the balance for each of them. This is definitely as a result of the complexity in sexualization between their various designs, where gender roles and orientation are refreshingly relaxed to elicit a deeper set of psychology at bay, but also in the ambitious outline of his storytelling structure weaving in between various periods throughout the thirteen years of history that have materialized their feelings towards one another in current day. In weaker hands, this would easily feel convoluted and at times a little confusing for audiences trying to keep up to so many sporadic transitions, but between meticulous attention to detail in everything from character appearances to clever placements of set design, I found no difficulty in accurately defining where we were at, with any given point throughout the 126 minute run time, in turn using the past as a meaningful tool of insight to convey emphasis into feelings and actions of the present that would otherwise feel misleading without the audience knowing the context for why certain elements are the way they are. Delightfully, Luca uses the visuals of everyday interraction to construct several uniquely vital callbacks between various timelines, like scattered puzzle pieces, and though we can accurately interpret that the pieces fit somewhere, it’s not until they’re completely assembled that their meanings truly hit the hardest, resulting in a climatic final twenty minutes to the film that quite literally had me on the edge of my seat in this battle for dominance that casually shifted my supportive interests towards each person like an untimely game of musical chairs. Aside from a compelling script, Guadagnino and his production are assisted tremendously by the dynamic duo of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, who fearlessly and ambitiously unload a series of electronic compositions that imbed an emotional complexity to sequences they feverishly adorn, especially during in-game sequences where it builds the tension like a powderkeg that feels like it could easily blow at any given second. While the volume mixing does get a little relaxed in unnaturally overriding some of the dialogue at times, Reznor and Ross articulate a personality for the film that feels like it works hand-in-hand with the dramatic depth of the storytelling, in turn solidifying an infectiously addicting collection that I truly can’t wait to purchase, in order to relive all over again. Likewise, the marriage of crisp editing, unique camera placements, and three-dimensional capture of tennis balls, effortlessly enables all of velocity, rhythmic sound schemes and of course drama of the gaming sequences, serving them up as a palpable treat for pay-off to a majority of the dialogue-driven interactions, where so many of the feelings of the characters can be conjured in a single look towards each other or a longing reflection to palpable regret that feels prominent in each of them. Not only does Luca effortlessly immerse in the depths of the game, with detection so firmly defined you can practically feel the wind of each stroke by player, especially during sets where a prolonged power struggle for a single solitary point feels so difficult between two players who know as much about each other on the court as they do off of it. For someone who doesn’t consider themself a fan of tennis, Guadagnino truly did the impossible here, and gave me a rich appreciation for the sport’s athletes, all the while maximizing the drama of the game in the forefront of the narrative with insight into the meticulously planted seeds of the past that have grown into the conflict we see before us. Lastly, the film is acted exceptionally by the dazzling trio of Zendaya, Faist and O’Connor, who go through such a demanding change of emotional dexterity that each of them pull of with tour-de-force bravado. Faist and O’Connor seamlessly nail the chemistry between them that constantly proves that something deeper may be afoot here, with Faist’s emerging confidence capably balancing O’Connor’s arrogance. But they’re both wrapped around the finger of Zendaya’s career-best turn as Tashi, who despite some flaws in her design, overcomes with sensually sexy and seductive sizzle that can be realized not only in the way she uses sex as a weapon, but also in the psychological dominance that she continuously carries over her male prey, with several instances of wink-and-nod posture towards the camera, which very well is her single greatest admirer.

NEGATIVES

Everything mostly comes together for Luca’s fifteenth feature length directing effort, but even when blessed by a bountiful screenplay, there are a few underdeveloped and underutilized aspects that sneak in, and momentarily obscure insight to the development of these characters. Such instances pertain to visual cues involving scars or dialogue pertaining to a character’s mother, which are brought into focus, and then never materialized into anything meaningful to the engagement. It makes the film feel like certain pivotal scenes are missing from the finished product, otherwise why even bring them into frame if neither have a key meaning to the development of the plot and its characters? There’s also an instance where a character’s motivation lacks distinguishing, especially in that their irresponsible actions come out of nowhere during a confrontation in Atlanta that changes everything forever. Considering the confrontational pasts that each of these characters bare towards one another, the development feels like it comes abruptly out of nowhere, and made even more unncessary with a future event that quite literally does the same thing, highlighting the single instance in the film where I feel a cut to one scene feels necessary. Similar concern also lends itself to the development, or lackthereof, of Zendaya’s Tashi, who tragically never evolves in framing beyond the object of affection that these horny males see her as. This can easily be argued in the mental dominance that Tashi continuously carries over them, but for my money I see the tragedy as the lack of insight towards the questions involved with who she really is away from the game, and how did this marriage to one of these players fall apart? and with the entirety of the film spent with these two male protagonists, the chance to learn anything about her that could enhance her as more than just a love interest, especially one who is probably the most detestable by film’s end, is sadly never realized.

OVERALL
“Challengers” serves up a rivetingly roaring triumph of dramatic storytelling that never grows tired through two hours of an emotionally grueling and physically wrenching confronation. While the occasional story thread or hollow characterization doesn’t land in bounds, the film’s stunning technical components and ferocious trio of performances overcome such adversity, in turn inspiring both an entertaining sports movie, but also a layered exploration on the toxicity of winning.

My Grade: 8/10 or B+