Anyone who has ever played tennis knows that the game begins here Love And grows rapidly. In Luca Guadagnino's hip, sexy and ridiculously exaggerated “Challengers”, rivals are former doubles partners Art Donaldson (Mike Feist) and Patrick Zweig (Josh O'Connor), best friends since the age of 12, who both After that they went their separate ways. The players fell in love with the same woman. Patrick got there first, but Art married him – and their competition has grown even more intense ever since.
As bunkmates at the same tennis academy, people may have heard this old groan: What do you call the girl who stands between two players on the tennis court? (The answer is almost too silly to be dignified, and yet: Annette.) In Guadagnino's erotic drama, Zendaya plays the girl in that situation, sitting at the exact midpoint between Art and Patrick at their big match. The camera doesn't rotate, but its head does, with each shot. This is Tashi Duncan, a teenage tennis prodigy turned professional coach. More than a decade ago, the two rivals competed for his number. Now it seems like they are playing for her heart.
Like that corny joke, the plot of “Challengers” may seem stale, and yet, Guadagnino's approach has an electric spark that elevates the material, making it fresh. There's raw emotion behind every high-speed volley and broken racket, resulting in the most provocative (and funniest) sports-centric love triangle since “Bull Durham.” Along with some romantic movies, it would be wise for you to pack tissues. In case of “challengers”, bring a towel. This is that rare film which will make you sweat just by watching it.
“I'm not a homewrecker,” Tashi teased Art and Patrick the night they met her 13 years ago. Structured like a tennis tournament, Justin Kuritzkes' script zips back and forth in time, asking us to rack our brains the same way the audience does in the film's opening Challenger match. (In pro tennis, Challenger events are like little leagues, where second-tier talents prove themselves.) This frames the film, as Tashi seems torn between her husband and her old partner.
Guadagnino, best known for directing 2017's new queer classic “Call Me By Your Name,” knows a thing or two about gay tension, and Tashi's “homewrecker” comment shows that he's a man between two people. Feels an unusually strong bond. The early scenes between Art and Patrick are some of the most adorable in the film, as the gangly teenagers thrash around and hang onto each other like rambunctious golden retrievers. After winning, Patrick takes Art to a girls' match to see his latest crush.
Watching from the stands, their legs spread indecently wide, the pair stare at Tashi as the wind blows her short skirt. None of this is accidental: not the way Jonathan Anderson (like JW Anderson, switching from catwalk to costume design in his first feature credit) displays Zendaya's gazelle-like legs, not the way D.P. Sayombu frames the Mukdiprom boys' crotch, and certainly not the moment when Patrick presses his friend's leg as Tashi shows them how, at its most beautiful, sport can be a joyful experience.
Later that night, at a party sponsored by Adidas for Tashi, the guys take turns trying to get her number. They are driven by hormones. She's more strategic (the complete control involved in Zendaya's performance is astonishing, turning this potential trophy into a rules-setter). “You don't know what tennis is,” Tashi challenged Patrick, “It's a relationship.” Lines like this, which explain everything in blinking neon lights, run throughout Kuritzkes's script. But Guadagnino's execution is all about subtext, calibrating things in such a way that body language speaks volumes.
The same goes for the scene in the boys' hotel room that promises to be the hottest scene of the year, when Tashi sits on the bed between the two and convinces them – or the coaches – to have sex. “Challengers” isn’t a gay movie per se, but it leaves things ambiguous enough that one could read it like Lucas Dhont’s recent “Close,” which is about a friendship so deep that the boys’ partners leave them. Teased for this.
Over the course of 131 minutes, “Challengers” swings between a romantic rematch and previously intimate scenes. All the time, even off-screen, Tashi remains the support. Currently, Art – whose torso shows signs of multiple surgeries – is in a cold spell, showing his lack of passion for the game. Passion isn't a problem for Patrick, who is more confident in both his swing and his sexuality.
The film requires intense physical performances from the two male actors, who appear wobbly and exhausted by the end. The character of Faust (a Broadway star whom “West Side Story” introduced to moviegoers) is a relatively traditional one, waiting patiently his turn and evolving as time goes on. O'Connor (whose turn in the gay indie “God's Own Country” led to her being cast in “The Crown”) comes off as brutish and immature by comparison, as his bad-boy character refuses to grow up or give up. gives.
The chronology of “Challengers” is more complicated than that, which becomes one of the joys of the film, as everyone involved — writer, director and cast — attempts to create a refreshingly “Twilight”-like YA elevatement. Romance (were it not for the accidental full-frontal nudity and R rating). Instead, the result is closer to the horror European art films of Bernardo Bertolucci, François Ozon and Abdellatif Kechiche, so focused as the film is on butts, baskets and various other parts of the body – as presented here, less erotic than erotic.
Another filmmaker might have reduced himself to moving the story forward, while Guadagnino goes big, leading the way with style (and a trendy score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross). Keeping with the athletic theme, he does all kinds of wild things with the camera, including a composition made from the umpire's perspective at mid-court that zooms over the net to find Tashi in the crowd. Sometimes, he and other characters shoot fluorescent yellow balls straight at the screen, causing us to squirm in our seats. By the end, “Challengers” assumes the ball’s POV — or perhaps it’s the racket’s — as Guadagnino immerses the audience in the film’s climactic match.
Far from your typical sports movie, “Challengers” is less concerned with the final score than the constantly changing dynamics between the players. The pressure is on and the sweat is flowing as the duo once known as “Fire and Ice” come face to face once again. Whether viewers identify as Team Patrick or Team Art, Guadagnino makes a risky but inspired move, effectively hitting the winning shot himself.
