Challengers

 

Score:  A

Directed by Luca Guadagnino

Starring Zendaya, Mike Faist, Josh O'Connor

Running time: 131 minutes

Rated R

Long Story Short:  Auteur director Luca Guadagnino brings his intimate filmmaking to the tennis world, zooming in on a tumultuous three-way relationship between young stars.  The sports action is much more exciting than usual, thanks to both clever filming and its close associations with the outside relationships (which get plenty of more direct but PG-13 level expression).  The actors are talented, fully committed, and bring their characters to life.  Highly recommended.

The intertwined relationship of three tennis phenoms - Tashi (Zendaya), Art (Faist), and Patrick (O'Connor) - evolves over the course of thirteen years.  Art and Patrick are high school best friends and both find success at the US Open tournament in the juniors division.  While celebrating their wins, they meet Tashi, the junior girls' champion, who they both are attracted to.  The three stay in touch over the years, though there is plenty of change as they attend college, struggle on the pro level, endure sudden setbacks, and deal with their pasts.  One match between Art and Patrick at a minor event - but the first they've played against each other as pros - promises to have consequences far beyond the modest prize money and ranking points.

Challengers is a viscerally intimate and riveting drama, more a closely observed relationship movie than a typical sports movie.  The cast is really just the three main characters - which is good, allowing the film to focus on them completely.  That might make it feel like a small movie, but the tennis elements, and really the sport itself, make it feel bigger.  A "love triangle" is the central feature, but what makes this one particularly unique and interesting is it's really a love triangle-squared: each individual has their own personality (each very different from the others); their own romantic interests; and their own relationship with the shared vocation of tennis.  The young actors not only credibly pull off a wide age range through the movie, from teenagers to jaded young adults, they have phenomenal chemistry with each other; they truly feel symbiotic, even when they hate each other.  The writing is fantastic, with both very believable and interesting dialogue, as well as well-rounded characters (although there's also enough mystery left to be enjoyable to imagine) who have both endearing strengths and repulsive flaws - just like real people.  Personally, I "rooted" mostly for Art and Tashi; Patrick reminded me too much of a typical asshole male (how do women fall for them???), and his smile/sneer made me want to punch him.

Along with the compelling interpersonal triangle, the movie is greatly helped by its non-linear structure.  It begins at the end, basically, with the start of Art and Patrick's match; just as you realize there is more to this match than the usual competitive rivalry, we are taken back to the very beginning of the threesome's relationship.  The movie then flips back and forth: it spends the most time on the final match (and the events directly leading up to it) but also looks at critical scenes from the previous thirteen years.  Thus you gradually get to know the characters and the final match evolves in its meaning - genius move.  Finally, the viewing experience is revved up further by the intense physicality and sensuality of the tennis and love scenes.  The tennis matches are creatively shot and varied, showcasing the high level of exertion involved and how hard the ball is struck, almost violently at times.  Even as a tennis fan, I admit that it can be a bit dull to watch, but the director and cinematographer make it more exciting than you can imagine.  On a general sports level, it even pulls off the impressive trick of keeping the outcome of the final match very much in doubt!  Bonus points for tennis fans in providing a realistic sense of the pro tour, and even having real TV announcers give some background commentary.  There are also plenty of steamy scenes; no direct sex or nudity but some intense make outs, or even just highly sexually-charged moments, that parallel the tennis in some ways.  The soundtrack provides a great final accompanying feature, amplifying the intensity and emotions of scenes with pop instrumentation but also knowing when to back off.

***

Challengers was an out-of-the-blue movie for me, as I didn't know about it very long before it came to theaters and it's definitely not the kind of movie I expect to see this time of year.  But I'm very glad that I saw it, as it's one of the most entertaining and well-made movies I've seen in the last few years.  It also restored my faith that sports can be effectively incorporated into movies; most "sports movies" are dull and predictable, though sports and movies can combine well if done thoughtfully (see also: Moneyball).  It's not exactly the start of the summer movie season, but I'll take it!

* By http://www.impawards.com/2024/challengers_xlg.html, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=75698722