Challengers - Movie Review

Critics Score - 6 of 10

General Audience Score - 7 of 10

I enjoy playing most sports, but Tennis is one that I’ve never really gotten into or even understood all that well. Each “point” moves in fifteen point increments? I believe there are sets, game, match and love? In the word of the immortal Tina Turner, “What’s love got to do with it?”. In any case, my knowledge of tennis aside, the new film Challengers from Luca Guadagnino is about a trio of tennis players between whom a love triangle forms. This trio is comprised of the incredibly hot actors Mike Faist, Josh O’Connor and Zendaya. The chemistry between them is mostly believable but not off the charts, through some sequences the character motivations and interactions were questionable despite the smoldering tension present. And with a two hour plus runtime, there was plenty of time to get to know these characters well. The score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross who worked with Guadagnino on his last film Bones And All return to their Social Network roots and this score is an absolute banger. The movie theatre essentially is turned into a dance club for periods of the film with their techno beats and bass thumping, especially in my Dolby theatre, the music was so loud it drowned out some of the dialogue at times. The party vibes are off the charts. All that being said, parts of the film worked, some didn’t, and Challengers ended up being a more challenging film than I’d hoped it’d be.

SYNOPSIS - We open with a shot in the middle of a tennis court from above, looking down at the net. We then get an up close upward angle of professional tennis player Art Donaldson’s (Mike Faist) face, beads of sweat running off his nose. More sweat to come. Then another close up shot of down and out struggling to survive tennis player Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Conner), his eyebrows fill the top of the screen, that’s how close the camera is. We see a little hand movement to the side and then hear a tennis ball smack the court with a “tock” sound. Finally we see the unsweaty Tashi (Zendaya) as she squints and gazes unblinking, presumably watching these two players facing each other. After the studio icons appear, onscreen text informs us we’re in New Rochelle, New York and this is August, 2019. Harmonious voices begin singing, like a church choir in harmony as we watch some aerial shots of the suburbs before settling over a tennis court. We hear the announcer proclaim, “Ladies and gentlemen, this final round match will be the best of three tie break sets.” He introduces the first opponent, the aforementioned Patrick Zweig to a light applause, then Art Donaldson, to which much more clapping and cheering erupts from the audience. We then see glimpses of a large check made out for $7,200 and a sign stating that this match is a regional tournament, Phil’s Tire Town Challenger. Art is handed a couple tennis balls and serves as the match begins. I don’t know enough about tennis to know who’s getting points but it seems clear Art, although the more accomplished player, is struggling to get his game together.

After a few back and forth sessions, as the two hit the ball back and forth, the camera takes position behind the announcer and then slowly moves forward. As it does the score begins to fade in and the high octane beat coupled with the momentum of the back and forth game begins to make some cinematic magic. We continue to move in and push forward over the court with the ball whizzing by in front of the camera and finally past it. The shot closes in on Tashi, sporting her classic sunglasses shown in the poster. She claims the first row, dead center chair, and as the crowd of spectators turns back and forth as the ball moves to and fro, eventually she stops moving her head, her gaze and attention stays fixed on Art. Finally Patrick gets an edge and takes advantage of it, he scores and shouts in exuberance. Art stands briefly frozen, dumbfounded. He looks over at Tashi whose gaze has now turned to Patrick. As Art walks back and gets ready to serve again, he looks over at Tashi who meets his gaze and removes her sunglasses, the unspoken conversation they’re having is not a pleasant one. As Art serves and strikes the ball, the scene cuts and we’re taken to a hotel room two weeks earlier. Lying mostly sleeping in bed in his black briefs is Art, as Tashi emerges from the bathroom, herself sporting black underwear, giving the audience their first of many eyefuls of skin. We begin to understand Art and Tashi are married, have a daughter and a life together, he’s a tennis pro and they’ve been successful, Art as a player, Tashi as his coach and manager. But soon we transport again to a few days into the future, a completely unnecessary onscreen note, and we see Patrick trying to get a hotel room with no money. He’s broke and after an exchange with the receptionist trying to bribe himself a room, opts to sleep in his car. But soon we’re transported back in time thirteen years to get the origins of this trio, their relationship dynamics and how they came to know each other. We ride the rollercoaster of their love lives as the two best friends Art and Patrick swoon over the delicious Tashi and grapple with each other for the upper hand in getting her affections. The film bounces back and forth between the past and 2019 “present” as we heat up for the eventual collision with the final match between these two that we got a glimpse of at the beginning.

So Luca Guadagnino is a director that I’m mostly a fan of, I enjoy his take on the things he’s make films about, even if some I find are more interesting than others. But here he’s creating a love triangle, the hook with entirety of the premise hanging on it is to have us invested in these characters. With the nonlinear film, we’re constantly hopping back and forth in the timeline, which becomes tiring after a while. Since I never got fully invested in these characters and their silly mind games they’re playing with each other, combined with the fact that in thirteen years they all look exactly the same with the exception of some hairstyle changes, after a while I found it a struggle to keep up with what timeline we were in. Unlike last years Best Picture winner Oppenheimer that bounced back and forth and forced you to really pay attention, this film was far less interesting. This trio of actors are doing some quality acting, I will give them that, they’re all talented and do the most with what they’re given. But the script by Justin Kuritzkes more than once made them make decisions that I just couldn’t understand, not only from a logical perspective, but from a character motivation standpoint. Also the final reveal was easy to see coming, Guadagnino plays the scenes out in the wrong order and it made the finale far too predictable. But the music track from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross! Go listen to Yeah x10. I do not exaggerate when I say that this score is possibly an all timer, it doesn’t eclipse their Social Network score but it is cut from the same cloth. With its thumping bass and techno beats, it made me feel like I was in a club, which is kind of the uptempo vibes the film goes for as scenes of sexual tension and intense dialogue are woven into the hot beats Ross and Reznor are laying down. Unfortunately the score is so loud that sometimes it actually interferes with your ability to understand the dialogue. I missed what was said in a few key moments of the film because of it. While I never exactly found myself getting bored, I did feel the length of the film as it pushed past the two hour mark and wondered why this film couldn’t have been trimmed down and streamlined a bit more. Also the camera work has to be praised, a lot of creative work is going on in combination with the editing, one sequence in particular of the camera moving as if it were inside the tennis ball. We fly back and forth across the court, just one example of the impressive work displayed by the DP of cinematography. There’s a lot of praise out there for this film right now and it seems most people are enjoying it, so don’t let what I say discourage you too much because there are things to really love about it. Go watch it if it looks up your alley and decide for yourself. Sadly Challengers, while it had it’s good qualities, left something to be desired for myself.

SUMMARY - I’d bet most general audiences that see this film will get exactly what they shell out their hard earned money for. Hot, young actors in various states of undress playing mind games with each other. To a more critical eye, there’s more problems here and while it can be fun and the final shot left me sporting a smile on my face, Challengers challenged my patience with it far too often.