Film: Challengers

A review of the new movie by Luca Guadagnino, a tennis thriller starring Zendaya.

Challengers

Director: Luca Guadagnino

Metro Goldwyn Meyer / Pascal Pictures

Luca Guadagnino specialises in love triangles, relationships where people are out on their own against the world, and taboo topics within that. Specifically complex layers (Call Me By Your Name), a woman caught between the power dynamics of two men (A Bigger Splash) and young people out on their own against the world (Bones And All). I might not love every film he makes, but I do love tuning in to find out.

Challengers instantly seemed intriguing, just for being a “tennis film” for starters (I love tennis films). And for the fact that its love-triangle was obvious.

Zendaya plays Tashi Duncan, a tennis legend-in-the-making, cut down in her prime, and now coaching her husband, Art Donaldson (played by Mike Faist). But Art has lost his mojo, if not his motivation, and so Tashi sends him back to the “Challengers”, the lowest round of the professional circuit, to gain valuable match experience to beat his current slump. There he will face Patrick Zweig (played by Josh O’Connor). Zweig’s professional career never really took in the way that Donaldson’s did, but the two have history. In fact, the three have history, Zweig is not only Donaldson’s former best friend, he’s also Tashi’s ex.

That’s our setup. That’s the tantaliser. And from there we flit back and forth in time, like a ball being batted across a net, and we learn about the intra-dynamics of the various duo setups within this trio.

Challengers is a tennis movie in the way that Whiplash is a drumming movie. It’s absolutely and always about the subject, but it’s most interesting in the subject for its metaphorical drive. And so Challengers is somewhere between the saucy manipulation of Saltburn (particularly in how it sets up two lead male actors to deliver two winning, connected performances) and the ruthless ambition of The Social Network. But maybe I’m thinking of that film because at times Luca’s direction almost feels like a more colourful take on the world that David Fincher likes to follow. The Guadagnino take is every bit as hollow, but the sparkles and luminescence hint, almost, at an incandescence. Though an existential doom hangs heavy around all of the characters, and for different — though connected — reasons. I’m also reminded of the Social Network for the overt reason that Challengers is also scored by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. And it’s the pair’s most overt piece of cinema scoring since that film. A glorious techno-fuelled pulse pushes the music that nudges key scenes and it’s electrifying.

But Challengers, winningly titled, occasionally hilarious, and definitely quite awkward, is a complex piece of filmmaking that will baffle as many as it delights.

This is a ‘head’ game far more than a ‘heart’ game, which of course is true of tennis. And so we have best friends as rivals, and the woman that has inspired both of them. But what is actually the prize here? And what is on the line?

We do get plenty of tennis in the film, and when we do it is delivered with perfect poise and cinematic tension, including some dizzying GoPro-styled “head shots”. But there’s a coldness to all of this which will frustrate a lot of the audience. That’s exactly why I loved it. It feels like the sort of content (urge, sorry, I hate that word — but it’s necessary here) created for people watching on a second screen (you know, in the background, their iPhone the primary focus). But it also demands your full attention. That alone will frustrate some of its intended audience I think.

There’s a huge convolution that propels this film of course. And it’s necessary. And the timeline jumping, and the length of the movie (2hours,11 minutes) will feel a tad much also. But I loved this film so much. To me it was the “Threesome” version of 2017’s Borg vs McEnroe. Currently my favourite tennis movie.

Everyone delivers a great performance here — Zendaya perhaps particularly. Though I thought O’Connor was absolutely brilliant also. Zendaya manages to coldly walk through this film with a magnetism in almost every frame. Often without ever saying anything. That’s some feat. And also a bit of stunt-casting too. But Challengers was, for me, the kind of brilliant, must-see, pure escapism we are crying out for right now.