Another Challengers Review No One Asked For
Challengers gets so close to being a monumental work of art but falls just short. It wouldn’t really be a Guadagnino film if it didn’t, would it?
Two years after his captivating yet flawed cannibal-romance story Bones and All, Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino is back with a rousing sports-drama turned ménage à trois, at the centre of which is one of our generation’s most brilliant actors. His movie is exciting and embodies uncommon depth, yet it also embraces some frustratingly simplistic cinematic decisions that leave it just short being an elite film.
At the start of Challengers, we’re introduced to tennis prodigy turned coach Tashi Duncan (Zendaya), her husband and struggling tennis star Art Donaldson (Mike Faist), and carefree but broke player Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor). After a lean spell, Tashi convinces Art to participate in a Challenger event in New York to get his mo-jo back, where he’s pitted against Zweig, who is taking part to make some money to get by. Once these two face off in the tournament’s final, a simmering tension, even apathy, becomes apparent. There’s a lot more at stake here than just tennis. There’s history between these two and Tashi, which Guadagnino explores in the rest of the film, mostly through flashbacks.
Challengers’ premise is captivating and slick. Through flashbacks, the film sheds its layers bit by bit during the first act, keeping you intrigued and constantly on the edge of your seat. Every time we go into the past, we learn more about the nature of the tension and how we’ve got to where we’re at now. It is simple yet undoubtedly effective and does a very good job of diving into the film’s themes, which revolve around sex and power dynamics, and how the two intertwine.
These themes work particularly well in Challengers because they emanate from an effective and nuanced script, which is brought to life by terrific acting performances from the trio, particularly Zendaya, who reminds us once again of the range of her craft and why she is one of the very best actors of our generation. Her first Oscar nod is all but guaranteed. The film’s stellar, beguiling original score, created by the multi-Oscar-winning composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, only adds to the film’s allure.
This is why, halfway through the movie, it feels like Challengers is on the cusp of something special; however, soon after, its simplicity becomes a flaw. What initially starts as intriguing becomes convenient, almost lazy. Simple becomes simplistic. With his continued reliance on flashbacks to create suspense, Guadagnino leans too hard into contrivance. Cuts to the past become messy. It’s like we’re jumping back and forth just to fill in the blanks and heighten the tension as Zweig and Donaldson battle it out on the court. Almost every cut to the past occurs before a key serve, during a set point, or after a set ends. It’s all too predictable, almost like the cuts to advertisements in reality shows. It’s not bad, per se, but for a director of Guadagnino’s stature, I expect a little more creativity.
Still, a lot of this simplistic and convenient filmmaking can be forgiven for the fantastic conclusion it leads to. One that brilliantly encapsulates the film’s core themes and does so in a very gratifying and clever way. So much so that even Guadagnino’s quite ridiculous adoration for slow motion (I get it, it’s a tool to build suspense, but Guadagnino starts taking the piss with it during the final act) and absurd decisions like capturing a point from the tennis ball’s perspective don’t take away from the highs of Challengers’ climax.
Honestly, that’s why these decisions frustrate me so much. If they served a forgettable plot, they wouldn’t really matter as much. But they take away from what is otherwise a genuinely incredible film — one that actually makes tennis seem interesting and watchable (it’s not). Challengers is one of those rare films that has a personality; an essence; a vibe. It would be a masterwork if it weren’t for the contrived, convenient storytelling and some perplexing filmmaking decisions. Almost, but not quite.
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