Challengers review: A Fascinating Spiral

Luca Guadagnino crafts an intriguing relationship triangle, powered by Zendaya’s enigmatic performance and inspired visuals that combines into one great sports drama.

Challengers

Directed by Luca Guadagnino
Starring Zendaya, Mike Faist, Josh O’Connor

Runtime: 2 hours, 11 mins

Synopsis

Rising tennis star Tashi Duncan (Zendaya) becomes intimately entwined with the lives of tennis partners Art (Mike Faist) and Patrick (Josh O’Connor) as they respectively climb up the world tennis ranks. As they pursue their romantic triangle and tragedy strikes, we start to see what each player actually values or wants between them, resulting in a climatic match decades later.

Let’s Address the Elephant in the Hotel Room

Because of the trailers and photos for this film, you may be walking into this movie thinking one thing about Tashi’s relationship with Art and Patrick. I won’t spoil that for you, but I will say it’s not the graphic sexual act that your mind might have constructed. Honestly, the misdirection built by the trailers serves this scene well because you’re expecting one thing and you don’t realize it yet, but it lays the framework for the whole movie’s tension. Yes, there’s the love triangle dynamic between the three, but there’s also the power dynamic regarding their love of tennis. How much they choose to pursue or engage with their careers, with each other as the years pass, or how those relationships fall apart isn’t simply due to a lack of love or desire, but it’s also about their passion for the game.

This eventually comes together in the finale match between Art and Patrick and if you pay close attention to what each character wants, it makes the final few minutes truly amazing. It calls back to this scene and different visual or dialogue moments between the trio that’s happened the entire time. It’s one of the rare times a conclusion ties a neat bow on everything they setup while leaving you wanting with desire as it concludes.

Also, threesomes can be awkward as hell, they certainly got that part right…which dovetails into my only real criticism of the film or more of a preference thing: it can be difficult to latch onto any of these characters since they aren’t exactly great to one another. They may not be screwing each other over like the Roy family in Succession, but they aren’t exactly altruistic with their career goals and personal desires either. Some of this may be exasperated by the time skips and flashbacks as we don’t always have the full context, which can build a general frustration towards the trio for how they are acting….almost like the audience has been unwittingly included as an awkward fourth wheel, but we can’t voice our enjoyment or displeasure.

The Best Use of Flashbacks Ever?

Normally, I am weary of stories that choose to start at the end because it takes a steady hand to calculate the impact that such flashbacks and time skips will have on the narrative. For example, I love the time twist in Westworld Season One, even though it drags some of the tension too much. However, Season Two’s attempt at that was largely bungled; it took a great story and made it muddier than necessary.

There are no such issues with Challengers: each flashback comes at a timely moment, and they typically keep the momentum going forward. So you’re not watching them all play tennis as college kids and then going back to watch them again when they were high schoolers, they typically keep scenes moving chronologically. The only exceptions is dates or incidents closer to Art and Patrick’s final match when they may occasionally do a 1-week later or 3-days earlier style rewind, but those are never confusing to understand.

All of this combines for a very satisfying flow of time with each scene. We get periods to reside in the past or present for considerable stretches, we’re not constantly juggling multiple time periods, and we get a chance to connect to the performance changes as they act older or younger, respective to the scene. Even though they don’t cover a large swath of time (e.g., the time period covered is about 15 years, give or take), they do a great job with clothing, hair, and makeup to make them feel as older or younger as needed without looking tacky or unbelievable.

Maybe the best way to describe the mixture of modern-day timeline and flashbacks is this: I was eagerly awaiting the next flashback so we could get more information and figure out the current dynamics of their relationship. Other films make you loathe every time that they do a skip whereas Challengers keeps you engaged with each addition.

There’s Also Some Tennis

The trailers may have made people believe there would be less tennis in this film, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Art and Patrick’s last match in the present day, is woven throughout the entire film, and their progress and success set after set keeps the tension going just as much as the flashbacks.

There’s also two amazing shots I want to call out:

The first that stood out was a ball tracking shot: we track the course of a ball, flipping the camera along with each hit and bounce into the ground. Any longer, and it would have been nauseating, but it’s used once that I can recall, and it works pretty well.

The second is the glass court shot: there’s a shot underneath Art and Patrick, creating this glass floor effect during one of their sets, and it’s a truly memorable moment. We are effectively watching the match upside down and it takes your mind a second to orient and get settled.

This is largely a result of director Luca Guadagnino’s reported boredom with the way most tennis matches are shot and framed. The traditional TV setting is usually higher over head with occasional closeup with the program or setup allows. You can almost perceive it like an objective viewpoint, there’s no energy or heavy editing from the camera / production team. Guadagnino eschews that to breathe life into the presentation, and make the overall presentation feel alive, especially for an audience that may also be apathetic towards the sport as well.

Conclusion / Recommendation

With its unique sports presentation and a decade-spanning script full of relationship twists, Challengers may be the best and most financially successful tennis movie ever made. And sure, that wasn’t a high bar, but that doesn’t diminish the impact of this trio’s performance and Guadagnino’s direction.

If Challengers is still playing near you or is already on digital, you’ll likely be fine watching in either format, though the tennis sequences do pop and look great on a larger screen. Also, if you’re hoping for an oversexualized stimulation type of experience, this isn’t the film for you.

Score: 8 out of 10

• Pacing and Scripting- 8
  • Doing that many flashbacks and rearranging sequences is a dangerous proposition, but it comes together well, avoiding the obvious pitfalls, and is surprisingly easy to follow.
• The Trio Shines- 8
  • Anchored by Zendaya’s lead, Faist and O’Connor create great chemistry and animosity throughout the entire runtime.
• Fantastic Matches- 8
  • The entire film is gorgeous, but the work put into the tennis matches is top-notch and breaks up any potential monotony.

Editor’s Note: Check out fellow NU writer Logan’s Director Spotlight: Luca Guadagnino for more!

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