Early in Luca Guadagnino’s provocative film, “Challengers”, Zendaya’s character tells her young admirers, “Tennis is a relationship.” She tells the young men that you can become so in tune with your opponent that “it’s like being in love”. The entire film revolves around the relationships built, destroyed, and rekindled between these three aspiring tennis champions.
This is a big-budget art film masquerading as a sports drama. Elevating Guadagnino’s direction is a killer soundtrack by Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) and incredible cinematography that puts you inside the tennis matches (Sayombhu Mukdeeprom). There are even scenes filmed as if you’re under the players watching them battle it out, sweat dripping down onto the court.
We open the film with the young tennis star, Tashi Duncan, at the top of her game. Like the actor portraying her, she’s beautiful, talented and wise beyond her years. Tashi is playing the long game. She’s staying in school to get a degree before becoming professional. Having just won the boys’ Junior Doubles at the US Open, high school buddies Art and Patrick can envision Tashi having a fashion line or a foundation; a tennis legacy. They don’t just lust after her, they admire her and want to be in her league.
The film ricochets back and forth between these formative years when Tashi and Patrick are students at Stanford and Art has gone professional. There are some steamy scenes that show the heat between all three of them. Their first sexual encounter reveals a long-standing bromance and homoerotic tension between the young men. Tashi states that she “doesn’t want to be a home wrecker”. She knows that she’s going to come between them.
The film is full of sexual tension, and also, tenderness, between the male characters. Josh O’Connor plays the quieter, more focused Art. He may have more discipline but he’s also, simmering with resentment and jealousy. Tashi calls him a snake at one point. Mike Faist gives Patrick that disheveled, devil-may-care bad-boy vibe. He has sexual confidence even as he lacks discipline.
There’s a great scene between the two young men in a school cafeteria. Art pulls Patrick’s chair in close and playfully bites into his churro, while Patrick tenderly wipes sugar off Art’s check. The number of phallic objects: churros, coke bottles, bananas…is almost laughable. The conversation is by turns, playful, taunting, and fraught with unresolved feelings. They might be rivals on the tennis court, and they’ve both fallen for Tashi, but there’s still love between them. It’s a complicated relationship and the actors pull off that balance.
As the film cuts back and forth to the central tennis match between the men, the story fills in the push and pull of the romantic triangle. There are affairs and betrayals. Tashi must overcome the loss of her career and regain her confidence. The relationships change over time and the time shifts are marked simply by the change of hair styles and fashion, but also the way the characters carry themselves. From buoyant youth full of brashness and vigor, to quiet confidence and years of playing the game, on and off the court.
Tashi and Art become a wealthy power couple. There’s a pivotal scene shot between Tashi and Patrick making out. In the background is a huge billboard featuring the married couple in an ad for an expensive car. Wealth and prestige can’t give Tashi her career back and it can’t motivate Art to continue a career he no longer loves.
As the score rackets up the tension and the match between Art and Patrick gets closer, Tashi sits in the audience. There’s a great shot where the crowd all around her is turning their heads to follow the ball while Tashi sits immobile, staring ahead. She knows that more is at stake in this match than winning a tournament. This could mean the end of their relationship: her marriage, what remains of their friendship, and possibly, it could destroy all their lives and livelihoods.
When Patrick places his tennis ball in the neck of his racket to indicate to Art that he’s had sex with Tashi, the play changes dramatically. There’s been the possibility that Patrick might throw the game to Art but now they play as if their lives and careers are on the line. It’s furious, heart-racing, sweaty tennis and it will have you on the edge of your seat. The ending had me cheering. I loved that it was left to the audience’s interpretation. Here’s to more arthouse films from great filmmakers starring great talent. Kudos to Zendaya for also acting as a producer on this film. Love. Set. Match.
Drinks with Films rating: 4 ½ Arnold Palmers sipped courtside wearing your tennis whites (out of 5)
Drinks with films 