‘Challengers’ Review: Zendaya Shines In Luca Guadagnino’s Stellar, Sexy Tennis Movie
(L to R) Mike Faist as Art, Zendaya as Tashi and Josh O’Connor as Patrick in CHALLENGERS, directed by Luca Guadagnino, a Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures film.
In Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers, Zendaya’s Tashi is always talking about tennis. That is the underlying truth that it took Art (Mike Faist) and Patrick (Josh O’Connor), the two 18-year-olds who fell desperately in love with her the moment they saw her across the court, 13 years to understand. But is she really always talking about tennis? That’s what she says, at least, but in this story, the lines between drops of sweat on the bed and on the court are basically non-existent. Tashi is in a two-hour tennis match with both of them at the same time, though one could make the case she’s on a two-hour sexual encounter with her two challengers.
The anchor point of the film is a 2019 tennis match between Art and Patrick in the finals of a challengers tournament. The former has been out of his usual game for a while, as his now-wife, but mostly trainer, Tashi constantly reminds him. The latter needs the win so that he can stop sleeping in his car. But most importantly, they really need to beat the guy on the other side of the net. What happened? Their backstory is told through flashbacks that span the entire runtime, but they key to them all is Tashi and how she’s been shaping both of their lives for more than a decade.
Their mutual infatuation for the young girl started the moment they saw her enter the court after they won a doubles tournament. A life-changing day for the two of them, who lost their first of many matches against Tashi that day in their bedroom. While in college, she dated Patrick but never without the shadow of Art looming in the background. However, it all changed when she suffered an injury that took her off the court. Shortly after, she started dating and training Art. Or was it the other way around? For Tashi, there is no distinction.
If Guadagnino started to toy around with sensuality and sexual tension in Call Me By Your Name, Challengers takes it to the next level after the top level. It’s so erotic it could even be screened in more dedicated theaters, and that’s not even counting the bunch of half-naked scenes. Guadagnino, in combination with the extremely well-put-together score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, doing their best work since The Social Network, managed to sell us every argument between any two of the three leads as a tennis match between them. The dialogue starts to fade into the background during many points of the movie and we as an audience simply act as the people watching it, turning their heads from one side to the other. But not Tashi, though: she’s seeing it all by looking at the middle.
Zendaya as Tashi in CHALLENGERS, directed by Luca Guadagnino, a Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures film.
Once we get to the more traditional sexy parts, Guadagnino certainly doesn’t disappoint either, making a case for why the erotic sub-genre should be brought back (look out for Hit Man coming later this year on this front). The now-iconic scene from the trailer, in which the three of them make out on the same bed, is by far the highlight of the movie as far as sexual tension is concerned, but it’s not the only time it happens. Luca Guadagnino brought a special energy boost to this story that is hardly rivaled by anyone in the industry, and most of it came from a deep understanding of how these characters face the duality of their relationships and their sport. For Tashi, they are one and the same.
Her only skill is hitting a ball with a tennis racket, she says at one point. So what happens when that’s taken away from her? She is begrudgingly forced to live the career she should have had through the racket of her husband, but she can’t bear the frustration that she feels when he’s half as motivated as she was at her lowest point. How can she get it out of him? She will find a way, and whether she does this intentionally or not, it’s up for the viewer to decide — and that’s precisely the point. These are characters that radiate off the screen.
We as the audience can pretty much understand what they are thinking at all times because of the perfect characterization by writer Justin Kuritzkes, even if the script doesn’t explicitly confirm it. The writing doesn’t really explain what the characters are thinking most of the times, but thanks to the direction and the performances, it doesn’t really need to. In fact, most of the time, it’s even better that it doesn’t give a direct answer, because there is no right one. Is Zendaya disappointed that her husband can’t win his latest matches because she wants to see good tennis, because she thinks he is a bigger loser than she perhaps thought, or because she wants to have the career she couldn’t have through him? It’s probably a combination of all of it, and so much more.
Zendaya grows from a teenage actress into a full-grown woman in the span of two hours. Box office aside, this will be another career-defining moment for her, as Hollywood will soon be ready to start handing her roles that step outside of high school. In her fearless performance as Tashi, for which she could very well earn an Oscar nomination, she proves once and for all that her two Emmys were not a fluke. She’s actually one of the leaders of Young Hollywood, and the town is not yet ready to see what she can bring. To see two polar opposite performances as Chani and Tashi are within two months of each other is something we haven’t seen since — well, Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides and Willy Wonka.
And speaking of young blood, Mike Faist proved in West Side Story that he is someone to look out for, and though he stole the show in the Steven Spielberg movie, someone who I wasn’t expecting to do so in Challengers was Josh O’Connor. Look out for that smile, it might actually be dangerous. The two of them are as competitive on the tennis court as their respective actors are on the screen. All of it carefully threaded by Guadagnino’s immaculate lens and perfect sense of pace. The film is electric, not only because of the sexual radiation that emanates from each of the scenes but also because of the never-stop rhythm of the narrative.
There is simply no other way to put it. Challengers was a fantastic watch, and I ate up every second of it. Guadagnino is one of my favorite directors working today, and every time he cooks something, I will be looking forward to it.
Challengers is currently in theaters worldwide.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
