Challengers

Perhaps the fact that three is an odd number – or as some might say, a crowd – is nowhere as glaringly apparent as in a game played in doubles or singles, and this is why tennis offers the perfect backdrop for Luca Guadagnino’s latest foray into the complex nature of desire.

The narrative framework of Challengers is set in the summer of 2019: the final of a rinky-dink ATP challengers tournament is fought between Aston Martin-sponsored and Uniqulo-endorsed professional Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) and down-on-his-luck underdog Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor). Why this match, that promises prize money of $7200, may just be the most important of both of their lives is gradually revealed, as the players’ history with the devastatingly alluring Tashi Duncan (Zendaya) is uncovered.

The feature is every bit the home ground for Zendaya the advertisement promised (“Her Game. Her Rules”), not only for her character to wield inexorable power, but for the actress and producer to once and for all cement her reputation as a creative force to be reckoned with. Every lift of her eyelids, each glance or averted gaze contains a multitude of unspoken thoughts and feelings. It is no coincidence that the two men fight to be met at eye level, to be considered her peer, or as Zendaya’s character in Dune: Part Two is told, “I’d very much like to be equal to you.”

Nevertheless, it wouldn’t be a Guadagnino film if there wasn’t an inherent queerness giving the depicted relationship dynamics the finishing touch, and the charged scenes between Faist and O’Connor have both men performing at the very top of their game. The intricacy of kinship, rivalry and latent homoeroticism present in every interaction is almost mockingly mirrored in Art and Patrick’s repeated consumption of phallic symbols (hot dogs, churros, bananas), but rather than on the nose or camp, this commitment feels disarmingly nonchalant.

Many a joke has been made about common themes between Justin Kuritzkes’s script and his wife Celine Song’s recent directorial debut Past Lives, but both films convince through their mature perspectives on human emotions and sensitive writing. There is also a playful component to Challengers and it finds humour amid the continuously rising stakes, such as the accumulation of code violations in the life-or-death end game.

Reuniting with his Call Me by Your Name cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, the sensually motivated camera finds the most exciting and invigorating ways to capture tennis, both as a sport and as a metaphor. Verbal punches in a couple’s argument are orchestrated with the same whip pans as the yellow ball reverberating between rackets. During the game, the audience is treated to point-of-view shots of the players, the ball, even the court. Sweat has been made such an integral element – actually dripping onto the lens in one instance – nothing short of a 4DX screening, where water is sprayed on the viewer’s face, can top the phantom sensation of needing a cold shower and a sugary beverage after watching this film.

The pace may hit faster than much of the Italian director’s previous work, largely thanks to the throbbing beats of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s electronic score, which ensure that the audience’s heart rate approximates that of the protagonists constantly operating at maximum physical capacity. However, Guadagnino still finds time to colour out the world he plays in. He ensures that minor characters exist outside the space necessitated by the script: the motel receptionist has bigger fish to fry than to cater to practically homeless Patrick Zweig.

This meticulous attention to detail is also present in departments such as scenery and costumes, when items ordered at a restaurant are actually part of their menu, or the fact that the span of 13 years is evidenced by characters wearing different sponsors at different stages of their career or clothing brands popular at the time the scene is set in.

Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers can be best summed up by a quote from André Agassi’s autobiography Open: “It’s no accident tennis uses the language of life. Advantage, service, fault, break, love – the basic elements of tennis are those of everyday existence because every match is a life in miniature.”

A surefire contender for hottest film of 2024, this passionate tennis romp will undoubtedly inspire people to pick up a racket themselves and further surge Wimbledon’s ticket demand.

Selina Sondermann

Challengers is released nationwide on 26^th April 2024.

Watch the trailer for Challengers here: