Movie Review: Challengers (2024)

Are you interested in a film about tennis? If you follow tennis tournaments, your answer would likely be “yes”, but how many people do you know, who take an interest in tennis like you do? The writer of this review is certainly not one of those people. So the skepticism in him, when attending the “Challengers” screening for select audience, and seeing the opening scene showing a tennis match, was probably at its yearly high.

The skepticism regarding the potential interestingness of “Challengers” diminished soon thanks to the actorship offered by the movie. The three lead actors: Zendaya (one of the new "Dune" stars; plays Tashi Donaldson in "Challengers", a tennis star turned coach), Josh O'Connor (one of the stars of "The Crown" series, plays Patrick Zweig in "Challengers", an opportunistic character, a low-circuit tennis player) and Mike Faist (Riff from "West Side Story" adaptation; plays Art Donaldson in "Challengers", a tennis champion) turn out to be a rather absorbing tandem. Each of them are bringing notable individuality to their respective characters while creating a rather fascinating texture at the same time, interweaving all three characters and their fates. Both of these aspects: individuality and texture, come with a charm that might take a casual and skeptical viewer by surprise. This is where I feel I must point out that, while the director Luca Guadagnino in his words seems to be adamant about not wanting to have a style, there is definitely something in that combo that lets the spectator connect “Suspiria”, “Bones and All” and “Challengers”.

_{Film still with Mike Faist, Zendaya and Josh O'Connor in "Challengers" movie. Source}

The finer work in the screenplay (by Justin Kuritzkes), connecting the threads may even go unnoticed, when watching the movie the first time. This would likely be due to a couple of things that are more visible in “Challengers” by comparison. First of all, O’Connor character’s shocking lack of moral compass, which is delivered using the signature absence of emotions such as remorse in his facial features and body language. However this had all been put into a context of a reality of an athlete: the competitiveness, motivation, commitment, goal oriented attitude. “Challengers” never stops being about sports, even when dealing with seemingly unrelated contexts. Which brings me to the second point about what’s more apparent there – it indeed isn’t as much about tennis specifically as it is done about sports in a more generalized manner. The emphasis on physical aspects of human being in the movie had been given its due share. It is an admirable praise to the human body; its potential and purport. The beauty of springtime of youth is being expressed through tennis. With some added flair of fitting and tasteful provocation here and there.

Yet, as a rule, nothing in this world is such that wouldn’t form part of some dichotomy. In “Challengers” the outstanding physical form and energy of youth are accompanied by learning experiences related to intricacies of relationships, not always rosy ones and sometimes leaving life changing lasting scars.

Peer Ynt
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