'Challengers' Review: Zendaya Serves a Game of Tennis, Twinks, and Sweet Tea in Luca Guadagnino’s Sexy Sports Dramedy
Luca Guadagnino is an instigator. He loves to pierce the veils in others' inner lives and air out their dirty laundry. Whether it be teens humping peaches in Italy or cannibals trying to find companionship in America, Guadagnino always showcases the minutiae of love and all its messiness, usually under the tender lens up until now. His latest sports-romance dramedy, Challengers, has him declaring, "Enough of that tender shit," and trades it for tennis, twinks, and tea with a side of trashiness.
Credit: Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures
R: Language throughout, some sexual content and graphic nudity
Runtime: 2 Hrs and 11 Minutes
Production Companies: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Pascal Pictures
Distributor: Amazon MGM Studios
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Writer: Justin Kuritzkes
Cast: Zendaya, Josh O'Connor, Mike Faist
Release Date: April 26, 2024
In Theaters Only
Tennis royalty couple Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) and former tennis star turned coach wife Tashi (Zendaya) Duncan are in a professional and relationship rut. Donaldson is on a New York Jets-level losing streak, and Duncan is tired of his losses. Hoping to change the tides, Tashi enters Art into a Challengers tournament as a wild card. Neither knows that Art's ex-bff and Tashi's ex-bf, down-on-his-luck Patrick (Josh O'Connor), is participating. During the sets, Art and Patrick look at Tashi sitting in the crowd, and they realize their match is more than just a game; much is at stake for both of them.
Challengers' story is framed like an onion: each layer presents a different time in the trio's lives. The deeper it unravels, the more in-depth you go with the psychological dynamics. When Art and Patrick hit the court, a flurry of memories regarding their relationship is played with each serve and stroke. They glare at each other intensely, evoking the infamous Zola quote, "Y'all wanna hear a story about why me and this bitch here fell out?! It's kinda long but full of suspense." Yet, Guadagnino depicts their closeness as if it were romantic. Their love is so intense they would be physically on top of each other celebrating a win, one thrust shy of humping in public. As their dynamic is detailed, you want to give flowers to the trailer editor for hiding all traces of homoeroticism. And that kinship sometimes rivals whatever they have with Tashi. She declares, "I'm not a homewrecker," clocking their intimacy immediately.
Guadagnino serves his power shot fairly early, setting up Tashi's relationship with her two little white boys in 2006. It’s a stark contrast from the 2019 “present,” where Art, Tashi, and Patrick all washed up in their own right, detesting each other. Guadagnino masterfully juxtaposes their dry atmosphere with the watery, sexual frivolousness. Encapsulating the feel of the aughts better than Saltburn with its Limited Too-like fashion, hilarious product placement as set decor, and great use of Nelly's “Hot In Here” as the boys fawn over Tashi dancing at a party, Guadagnino transports you back while setting the tension high. Once those sparks fly between the three in a dingy motel room, you want to raise a glass of wine at the screen and cheer. Nobody but Luca G. can illustrate mutual attraction, desire, and power in a quasi-biblical and quasi-Shakespearean manner. Once Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross's energetic, electric house score blares, it marks itself as one of the best scenes of 2024; it’s horny cinema at its sexiest and finest.
Justin Kuritzkes (aka Mr. Potion Seller/Mr. Celine Song) assembles an intelligent, personality-led screenplay that meticulously squeezes every dramatic beat possible in a campy, millennial fashion while formulating a deep psychoanalysis of power, sex, profession, and desire with a fresher smell than a new tennis ball. Plus, the trio's familiar traits make for a fun deconstruction – Art is the textbook good guy with a career-focused demeanor, and Patrick is the perceptive yet cocky fuckboi who can get under your skin and into your pants. Tashi is the perfect mysterious and unapologetically frank twist for these stooges. Her introduction on the court illustrates her passion for tennis and all its competitive glory. She's so obsessed with the sport that if tennis were personified, she would put a ring on it and leave these twinks in the dust. However, Art embodies the game itself, and Patrick, the competitiveness that she’s addicted to, even long after she marries one of them. As Kuritzkes odyssey of a story reveals parts of their past lives (pun intended), every subtle action and detail paves the way for exciting payoffs during the main game.
Guadagnino lets your emotions linger as he draws out each swing, serve, and point with exhilarating, phenomenal camera techniques and composition. The cinematic, immersive, dizzying visuals make you feel like you’re experiencing a 3D event as tennis balls fly at the screen. Ripping a page out of Zack Snyder's handbook, Guadagnino pours so many slo-mo's with intention, relishing in making you squirm, severe pacing disruption be damned.
Mike Faist, Josh O'Connor, and Zendaya deliver powerful strokes in their age-spanning performances. O'Connor surprised me as Patrick with his distinctively douchey American accent and shamelessness that form a welcoming comedic backbone. At the same time, his diabolical poker face – sometimes even more conniving than his competitors – keeps your stomach churning.
Zendaya, the friggin’ actress she is! As a strategist, a gamer maker, and the Queen on the chessboard, Zendaya's Tashi is another showcase of the performer's vast star power. Tashi Duncan is her most mature role, exuding a dominant, unbridled Black woman with confidence you don't want to mess with. Even when the dialogue or beat veers into trope-city cheesiness, Faist, Zendaya, and O'Connor's robust and consistent character writing and performances compensate for the shortcomings.
While Guadagnino and Kuritzkes intended to shift the story's layers through its non-chronological framing device, its constant back-and-forth grows tedious. Initially, it's a masterclass in editing and pacing as the match cuts between scenes of the trio's past lives. It later becomes a chore, with its timeline zipping around separate flashbacks within the same flashback. Despite compensating by keeping you enticed in the drama, the pacing takes a noticeable hit. Even with its stirring finale and Guadagnino going for the big swing, I was ready for it to wrap up, and the endless Snyderisms he engulfs himself in don't help its rewatch value.
Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers – or, as I call it, "Of Tennis, Twinks, and Tea" – is a delicious, horny, wine-raising rollercoaster featuring Mike Faist, Josh O’Connor, and Zendaya at top-notch acting power playing an excellent game.
Rating: 3.5/5 | 77%
