Challengers, 2024

✫ 9/10

What made “Challengers’’ a unique, eccentric and sexy movie that everyone has since been talking about?

The 2024 movie directed by Luca Guadagnino and starring Zendaya (“Dune”'), Josh O’Connor (“The Crown”) and Mike Faist (“West Side Story”) tells the story of Tashi, a tennis player, after going through an accident, starts coaching her husband, Art. He has since transformed into a world-famous player. After a massive losing streak, Tashi signs him up to the `Challenger` event- a small level of tournament. What they didn’t know was that Tasha ex- boyfriend and former best friend of Art, Patrick was going to the tournament and now the three of them find themselves trapped in the webs of their troubled past.

This movie goes back and forth in the past, something that for some people may not work but for me was plenty enjoyable, making it a much more fun film to watch. While you want to know what is happening in the present, you also want to know why they are acting like the way they are in the entire movie. It’s like you are also taken in by their web.

It is one of the most intimate films I have seen - a movie about power, sex, and relationships all at once, but the most important thing, and only one - tennis.

I have never seen a movie that carries so much love for a sport, and the director does not even like tennis. But I think that maybe this is one of the reasons it is so different from the other movies about sports. The slow motion scenes when they are playing are so much good and all the sweat and sounds of tiredness they made while playing is almost erotic. Like in the beginning I said it is a movie about sex even though( and now a little spoiler)- it doesn’t have a single sex scene. This proves once again how good the direction of Guadagnino is, since he is able to show a love for a sport he doesn’t even like and a whole relationship through the eyes of single and particularly scenes of the movie. Especially when they are playing tennis. Even the atmosphere of the movie is like a match of tennis, going back and forth and is breathtaking.

And the end is very well done with a great scene of the final match, with an amazing score, that is going to be in your head for a while with the brilliant acting of the three protagonists being one of the unique things that make the scene even more great. Is like every moment leads to this. 

The acting of Zendaya, Josh O`Connor and Mike Faist is remarkable and tense. Their bond and chemistry makes the film with an extra layer that shows their love (especially O`Connor and Faist) and is actually very interesting because you don’t exactly know what happens between them. Is it romantic? Platonic? And Zendaya carries much of the power of the movie. She understands what tennis really is for. Is a relationship. And for her it is the most important one. Tashi “just” o wants to be the best. And when she can’t anymore… that’s where her character goes more deep on her own. More controlled and I think that even without her noticing.

A lot of the players of tennis say how much intimacy the sport is about. And this intimacy, this vulnerability is what takes Patrick and Art to Tashi dominance inside and out the court. And for her power and magnitude that make the three of them bond together forever. They are attached to her not only because of her beauty but about what they think she means, about her greatness. And of all things is about how she plays. The first thing Patrick says to Art about her is about how she plays. And you see from the beginning how they are completely devoted to her. Tashi once says in the movie that she doesn’t want to be a “home wrecker” of the boy's relationship. But I think that, at the moment they saw her playing was already inevitable. They become obsessed with her, the desire of having even a little of the power she holds, and doesn’t even know, too much for them. Their obsession leads them to their faith.

In the end, “Challengers” is a remarkable movie that has a complex trio, a great cinematography and a script very well done and enjoyable to see. It is like a study of characters, and you will think in the end about what all of them really wanted and most important - what will happen now?