Challengers is directed by Luca Guadagnino, and stars Zendaya, Mike Feist, and Josh O’Connor.
Tennis prodigy Tashi trains her husband Art to be the ultimate tennis player. After suffering a losing streak, Art must face his best friend Patrick not only on the tennis courts but in his mind as well.
After seeing Guadagnino’s previous directorial outings I was interested in seeing Challengers. The movie looked like a mature and psychological take on a sports movie. It is most definitely not your most average sports movie.
As an audience member yours truly was curious to see Zendaya in a more mature film role and Challengers proves she can carry a film. Here in Challengers she is manipulative, cold, sexy. Driven. Mike Feist and Josh O’Connor play both best friends and rivals well. As the movie progresses and their rivalry blossoms they engage in mind games as their sports careers evolve.
Tennis is a very visceral sport and during the matches Guadagnino puts you right in the action of the tennis court, immersing you in the chaos as these players try to outdo their opponent. Everything production-wise comes into play, from Sayombhu Mukdeeprom‘s camera work to the sound of tennis rackets and tennis ball impacts.
Really the movie is told in non-linear fashion down to specific captions reading one week ago and what not and it took me out of the film a bit. Art and Patrick Being best friends that the characters are, the homo-erotic tones of some scenes had me scratching my head (I’ll never look at a churro the same way again). Being more of a drama I question why this is in iMax.
Teaming with Guadagnino are composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross after previously collaborating on Bones And All. The music here is mostly electronic, giving the score strong techno vibes and giving the movie some good energy.
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