Zendaya’s latest film attacks with a steamy love triangle and amazing tennis matches – This is how Challengers succeeded – Terasz

Luca Guadagnino’s filmography so far is diverse, to say the least. The Italian director has already directed a coming-of-age story focusing on male love (Call me by your name)a dance horror remake (Sighs) and also a romantic cannibal film (Bones and all). The director has now also tried his hand at the sports film genre. And the Challengerslike good sports movies in general, only uses competitive sports as a tool to tell something important about human existence, friendship, love and all the complications that come with them.

Challengers – film review

The camera shows a tennis court, with a young blond man on one side and a dark-haired young man on the other. The match is tense, the punches crack like a whiplash, electronic music is pounding in the background. There is a woman sitting in the audience who, unlike the other spectators, does not move her head left and right following the path of the ball, but concentrates tensely.

This is how it starts Challengers film, in the first few seconds of which all three main characters appear on the scene. The viewer doesn’t know anything about them yet, but he feels that they are closely connected to each other, and that there is something more to see here than just a tennis match. This game is about much more than that…

It soon turns out that the players on the field are Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) and Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor) and the woman in the audience is Tashi Donaldson (Zendaya).

Jumping between different time planes, the film shows the toxic and at the same time very complex, but very understandable relationship system of these three people, the love triangle, which turns the lives of all three upside down.

Patrick and Art are good childhood friends and promising tennis players. The personality, outlook on life and playing style of the two boys could not have been more different, which is why their duo was nicknamed fire and ice.

In the early 2000s, young people in their early twenties met Tashi, already a very successful tennis player in his age group, at a tournament. The only problem was that they both really liked her.

With a sweltering night, the three of them start a game of more than a decade, from which it is difficult to decide who will come out victorious.

In the present, Art and Patrick meet again at a tennis tournament. Was it just chance that brought the estranged friends together again, or is it something else? The two men have taken different paths in recent years, and participating in the competition means a lot to them.

In the final match, of course, they will be each other’s opponents, while Tashi watches them from the audience. All the tangled emotions of the trio’s past and present come to the surface during the game, and in the process the viewer understands more and more about them.

Luca Guadagnino and Justin Kuritzkes, who wrote the screenplay, know human emotions very well and can portray them. The dialogues are striking and full of life, the drama of the characters can touch the viewer. Therefore, of course, not only the writer and the director, but also the actors are to be praised. The cast is strong, the performances are not outstanding, but very authentic.

The sports film genre suits Luca Guadagnino surprisingly well. With fresh film language solutions and exciting nuances, the director is able to bring new colors to the genre known to almost everyone.

And the tennis match at the end of the film is guaranteed to make viewers’ jaws drop. Such a creatively recorded, intense and stylish sports match is very rarely seen on the cinema screen, every moment is burned into one’s brain. The aggressively strumming electro, the snapping tennis rackets, the sweat dripping in slow motion and the determined looks stay with the viewer even after the film.

Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) and Atticus Ross’ familiar duo’s soundtrack creates a great unity with the film’s suggestive visuals and helps the most impactful scenes really hit home.

Luckily, Luca Guadagnino’s genre excursion turned out very well. Perhaps the director has never been so disillusioned and hopeful at the same time, but fortunately this suits him very well. That’s why it’s definitely worth signing up for this match!

Cover image: Mayer Pictures / Metro Goldwyn / Intercom