Guest Author: Ryan Staben

For many, the film event of the year has already come and gone with Denis Villenueve’s monumental Dune: Part Two, which satisfyingly completed the duology which began in 2021, while also serving as a vehicle to bring out some truly tremendous performances from Timothee Chalamet and, notably, Zendaya. Up until recently, Zendaya has been, despite her pervasiveness in television as well as general cultural consciousness, a relatively minor player in the world of cinema. Her appearances in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Spider-Man films as well as other minor roles have been generally liked, but have failed to display much of her genuine talent and range as a screen actor. Dune gave her the opportunity to do just that. But if Dune was her first time at bat in the big league, Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers was her first veritable home run (I’m too unfamiliar to make a skillful tennis metaphor), and undoubtedly my movie of the year. 

Guadagnino’s films have always had a particular focus on not just love and relationships, but particularly on the more questionable and even depraved aspects of what fuels them, from 2021’s cannibalistic Bones and All to his 2017 critical darling Call Me By Your Name, which looked into a relationship that spanned not just an uncomfortable age difference, but a clear disparity in maturity. Challengers similarly explores the nature of competition in love and how it can give way to our darkest impulses. Told through an intercutting narrative of the personal and professional lives of tennis players Tashi Duncan (Zendaya), Art Donaldson (Mike Faist), and Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor), the film contrasts rivalry and relationship on the tennis court with the equally fiery dynamics between the three behind the scenes. When the film starts, Art and Tashi are married with a child, giving the viewer a fairly simple relationship dynamic to follow. Unfortunately for those anticipating a narrative propping up the nuclear family, every single scene that follows further complicates the triangle of love, hate, and lust that informs the explosive tennis game that the entire film is framed around.

As the film hops around in time from the mid-2000s to the late 2010s, we learn that Art and Patrick were questionably fraternal friends from a young age and both developed an eye for Tashi at the same time, spending much of their high school and college lives vying for her love, while also pushing down what may have been a budding love between them. At the same time, we come to realize that Tashi’s true passion in life lies in no man, but the game of tennis itself. The film goes on, and we continue to cut back to the eponymous challenger tennis game between Art and Patrick, taking place at the latest point in the story, which becomes more and more layered as more and more skeletons are yanked out of their closets in expertly sequenced flashbacks. Every point scored or racquet broken becomes so much more meaningful once placed in the context of the ever-increasingly storied past between the two players, now in their thirties. A side note: as more and more films choose to opt for ridiculously uncanny digital de-aging technology, it is very refreshing to see the journey from teens to thirties displayed on the screen through honest-to-god costume and makeup design, which convincingly ages the characters without turning them into smooth, muted, cg messes. 

It’s no secret that Zendaya is the absolute star of the show here. Tashi is a dense character who blends a refined, aristocratic elegance with a truly low, filthy, dark side that remains veiled until key moments of overflowing passion. Now, not to frame this review as if Zendaya hopped straight from Disney originals to Challengers, I would be remiss to mention her stellar performance in HBO’s serial drama Euphoria, which was an important proving ground for her genuine chops as a dramatic actor. But when I say that her performance as the impassioned tennis star shows a range and skill hitherto unseen from her, I mean it. It almost feels like it should be strange to see her in such a mature role given her past decade or so of playing high schoolers on screen, but her performance doesn’t draw doubt for even a second. She becomes Tashi in a way that only the best actors can truly become their characters. I’m strangely reminded of Cate Blanchett’s performance in 2022’s Tar, where Blanchett slipped into the shoes of a similarly dark but talented figure. 

The film’s score, created by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross of Nine Inch Nails, is a near constant and unrelenting stream of high-octane techno/electronic music which works hand in hand with clever, snappy editing to punctuate aggressive back-and-forth conversations like a ball being rallied back and forth in a game of tennis. Harsh words share musical cues with aggressive spikes, and this clever framing positions each and every conversation as a match to be won or lost by one side or another, further blending the competition at the center of the film between moments on and off the court. 

As with the director’s previous films, Challengers is a visual marvel. Shot on 35-millimeter film, each frame feels brimming with gorgeous, popping colors. Every single scene is skillfully composed and blocked to make sure the power dynamics between characters are implied if they aren’t stated outright. As the challenger game continues throughout the film, the camerawork becomes more and more audacious, with certain shots making me audibly gasp out of pure unexpectedness. I won’t spoil anything, but there are moments where you will see a shot and wonder how on earth they made it work. 

The two male leads are impressive as Art and Patrick, and while Mike Faist was great as Art, it was Josh O’Connor as Patrick who really blew me away. His little facial expressions and arrogant attitude construct a character who is so obnoxious, headstrong, full of himself, and nearly rat-like that it all loops around to being somehow charming in a way both of our other protagonists are drawn to. Faist’s performance, on the other hand, consists of being as pathetic and dependent as possible, which again, has a strange charm to it. 

Every time a film this genuinely great and original comes out, it’s a nerve-wracking wait to see if general audiences will give it the support and love it deserves, to hopefully convince studios to produce more like it. Thankfully, Challengers has performed well enough to ensure that the several projects Guadagnino has on the way are completed and released. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, I implore you to go and watch it, on streaming if you choose, but, while it’s still there, I urge you to go and see it in a theater, where a movie this big and loud and adrenaline-pumping deserves to be seen.