Director Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name) deliver his latest sexually charged drama with Challengers, a film that shifts through time as a love triangle in explored between high level athletes; specifically engaging are the power dynamics that exist between a veteran player-turned-coach and her young male proteges as they rise the ranks of professional tennis athletes.
Tennis players Art Donaldson and Patrick Zweig, played by Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor respectively, somehow remain best friends in the highly competitive sport. The duo quickly find themselves in the throws of infatuation with professional star Tashi (Zendaya) in the first act.
The young men are on the rise in the sport, but they’re still battling opponents on the junior circuit. One of the elements that draws them to Tashi, outside her gorgeous looks, is that she’s carved out an incredible career at such a young age. Her promotional materials are ubiquitous across the tennis grounds, she’s the current face of tennis with a lucrative Adidas contract to propel her for years to come.
The first meaningful interaction between Tashi and the boys comes at an Adidas party thrown for Tashi. The boys take their shot and they invite her back to their hotel room, with little hope she will show up fo the rendezvous.
It’s a delicious scene when she arrives to the hotel room, waiting at the door and listening to their frantic attempts to hastily organize and clean the hotel room. She doesn’t need any further proof that they hold her in high regard and she has power over them.
She lures them into a sort of three-way-kiss and encourages the boys to carry on without her, wanting them to explore for her own amusement. The ingestion of alcohol doesn’t hurt to lower the inhibitions of the boys, but it feels like this is something that would not require heavy coaxing even without the booze.
While both young men pursue Tashi, Patrick is the first to succeed and it’s notably due to his edgy rebel bordering on bad boy charisma. Though frustrated, Art accepts his romantic defeat as he and Tashi get closer during their time together in college. Art is the one closest to Tashi when she suffers a career ending injury. This moment is a hard blow for Tashi to absorb, but it leads to a different sort of relationship with Art as Tashi agrees to coach him, even hinting that he will excel past Patrick.
The majority of the time jumps in Challengers revolves around the big tennis matches. It’s evident early in the film who wins Tashi’s heart, as Art and Tashi end up married with a daughter in the midst of his red hot professional career where he’s earned multiple Grand Slams.
Patrick is getting by in challenger tournaments, but it’s far from the picturesque life he envision alongside Art when they first met Tashi. It seems what Patrick needed was Tashi, but she funneled her focus toward Art and molded his talent to become a competitor.
Tashi is clearly attracted to Art’s immense success and her role in crafting him into a top tier athlete. However, Art has lost most of his passion for tennis and is now considering stepping away. Art is wise enough to be concerned that Tashi will love him less if he’s no longer a player, and that’s the harsh truth of their relationship’s foundation and the internal makeup that fuels Tashi.
The past dueling the present timeline is much like a tennis match within the screenplay, written by Justin Kuritzkes. It’s nonlinear narrative makes it harder to surmise great depth to these characters as we’re only given glimpses into how they’re thinking at certain points in their lives.
As the director, Guadagnino captures the visceral nature of the tennis matches, utilizing extreme close ups of sweat dripping across flexed muscles to the frenetic footwork required to stay ahead of your opponent and in the game. There’s a ballet to each match, allowing Guadagnino to put his stylistic stamp on the competitive scenes in the same manner that he crafts the vivid, sensual romantic scenes.
The electronic driven score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is a key element in heightening the film and establishing its atmosphere. Marco Costa’s edit works hand and hand withe score and impressive sound design, which makes for an incredible theatrical experience.
The film’s strengths come from the performances of the lead trio, particularly Zendaya stretching further into adult territory without the melancholic shading that dampens her Euphoria character. This role of Tashi is vibrant, intuitive, and at times feral. Guadagnino was the perfect collaborator for a project that entertains, but ultimately doesn’t enthrall the audience. A deeper exploration of character and the complex dynamics behind each’s decision making would have moved this to an A score.
Letter Grade: B