Challengers – REVIEW

Sports movies have never really been my thing. To double down on it, sports in general really isn’t my thing. Sure, I like watching basketball and baseball, but I don’t want to actively play them. I’m admittedly partial to some baseball movies like Field of Dreams and Moneyball, but I don’t know anything about tennis. Like, anything at all. The most I know is from Wii Sports, just to give you a sense of how much I really know. However, I am familiar with director Luca Guadagnino, even though I haven’t seen what’s probably his most popular movie, Call Me By Your Name. The only movies I’ve seen of his are his remake of Dario Argento’s Suspiria (which I think is one of the only horror remakes that has elements that surpass the original) and Bones and All, his last film. This movie, Challengers, originally was supposed to come out in September of last year but was delayed because of the strikes in Hollywood from last summer, but I do think it benefitted Challengers because it’s currently having a hell of a time in the spotlight. On top of that, I think it’s very well-deserved of the praise it’s getting.

Right off the top, it feels like this is a vehicle for the three main actors here, really the only characters we have to know about. There’s even a wonderful little edit at the *very* beginning to show that, and it works so well in the context of the movie. Let’s break it down: Art and Tashi Donaldson, a husband-and-wife, tennis player-coach duo are in a bit of a rut. Art’s an immensely talented athlete, but he’s stuck in a losing streak. To try and thrust him out of this losing streak, Tashi signs him up for a challenger match (which is one of the lower levels in pro tennis). On the other side of the net, Art finds Patrick, his former best friend and Tashi’s former boyfriend. Most of the movie is in a non-linear structure, going from when Art and Patrick meet Tashi to this challenger match.

As I said at the top, this really is a showcase for the three actors we focus on: Zendaya, Mike Faist, and Josh O’Connor. It feels like everyone knows who Zendaya is now, especially since she’s the co-lead in the year’s biggest movie so far, Dune: Part Two. Seeing her take on this cold, manipulative leading role and knock it out of the park could be the turning point of her career of getting more roles out of just “the girlfriend.” Mike Faist, who really made an impression on me as Riff in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story a few years back, also kills it here. He played the “boy next door” trope pretty well and I hope to see him more on the screen. The big standout for me, though, is Josh O’Connor. I had no idea who he was going into this, but I know that he’s the lead in an indie movie called La Chimera that’s supposedly great too. O’Connor’s just got this infectious charm to him that could flip on a time to being creepy as hell and, just like Zendaya and Faist, kept elevating the movie.

When I was putting this review together, I was struggling to put together how I felt about the presentation of the movie. A recent interview with Guadagnino where he commented on how he felt about tennis as a sport, and that’s when it all clicked: Guadagnino thinks tennis is very boring to watch. I’m not sure where he gets this from because the tennis matches that are shown here are electrifying. They’re all beautifully shot by Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, as is the whole movie in general. There’s a quick moment of this in the trailer, but there’s a moment when there’s a POV shot of being the tennis ball during a match during a volley. It felt awe-inspiring to see something this creative and (presumably) not really done before. I can’t go without mentioning the booming, clubby score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. It’s my personal favorite score of the year and probably one of my favorite scores from Reznor and Ross right now. There’s also a remix album of the score done by Boys Noize and it might be even better.





Even as someone who was expecting Challengers to be pretty good, I still was pleasantly surprised with it. It feels like nothing I’ve seen before in the sports movie genre, especially when it comes to pairing up tennis and romance. First-time screenwriter and former potion seller Justin Kuritzkes really impressed me and I look forward to Guadagnino and Kuritzkes reteaming for Guadagnino’s next film, Queer, which also comes out this year. Zendaya, Faist, and O’Connor all cement themselves as actors to keep an eye on and I certainly hope that Challengers has the staying power to be a contender at the Oscars next year.

♡

Challengers is in theaters now, with a digital rental/purchase being available at some point this summer. Being an MGM release, Challengers will stream on Prime Video later this year. It’s also expected to get a physical disc release, but it’s unconfirmed if it will get a Blu-Ray and 4K disc or just a Blu-Ray disc. I’m holding out hope for a 4K release, Challengers really deserves one.