Does ‘Challengers’ Have Substance Under its Sexy Surface?
Italian director Luca Guadagnino changed how we look at peaches forever in his modern queer classic ‘Call Me By Your Name’. Can he do the same with tennis balls?
Tight, pounding rallies. Bulging muscles in barely-there lycra. Beads of sweat dripping from every extremity. Who knew tennis could be so erotic? Luca Guadagnino, that’s who.
The 52-year-old Italian filmmaker, a Venice Silver Lion winner and Oscar nominee, has built a rep for visually lush and queer-skewed dramas that are borderline aching with sexual desire. His last film, Bones and All, cast it-guy Timothee Chalamet as a waif-like flesh eater. His 2017 film, the modern queer classic Call Me By Your Name, gave the humble peach a pearlescent PR makeover that stood alone until Saltburn’s salty bathtub entered the chat.
If there were a cinematic equivalent to edging, Guadagnino is the guy to put it on screen. With Challengers, the openly gay director has thrown every suggestive flourish at the screen, from its pulsing electronic music underscoring oodles of sweaty slow-mo, to his so-hot-right-now leading threesome.
The result is a captivatingly horny love triangle that’s as steamy as anything you’re likely to see this year (we promise you, babies will be made as a direct result of this film). But once the fogged-up screen cools off and clears, is there anything left underneath?
Okay, so Challengers is pretty sexy. So what’s the setup?
Let’s get the obvious out of the way. Guadagnino and writer Justin Kuritzkes have pulled on the white shorts and used the metaphor of tennis to tell their story that, at first glance, is a tale as old as time: two blokes besotted with one woman. The modern twist here is that Tashi Duncan (Zendaya) isn’t just adding tension to the strings, she’s pulling them hard from the sidelines.
Art and Patrick (Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor) are two prodigy teen tennis players, a duo so formidable they’ve been nicknamed “Fire and Ice” on the court. This nod to their personalities is also the first clue as to how they’ll pursue Tashi. Patrick is Fire: bold, brash, and a bit of a hot mess. Art is Ice: more reserved, less confident, but altogether more in control.
“Yeah, I think they’re all fluid. I think they all kind of love each other… they’re all in, they’re all tied to each other.”
Josh O’Connor on the lead characters’ love triangle and their sexuality
Tashi, though, is on another level. She’s already won the Junior US Open, an Adidas contract and the hearts of tennis fans, wowed by her savage groundstrokes and mental toughness. She doesn’t just beat her opponents, she crushes them. She’s tennis’ Next Big Thing, walking through the door Serena smashed down as a champion sportswoman of colour. That’s until an agonising knee injury stops Tashi in her tracks. It’s game over — on court, that is.
What’s with the timeline — and Zendaya’s changing hair?
Challengers is structured like an epic rally that hops back and forth in time. There’s the teen years we just described: Art & Patrick build their doubles partnership, meet and compete for Tashi, and their equilibrium comes unstuck. But the movie’s other half is set years later, in the present, when they meet in the final of a Challenger event (basically the lowest-tier pro tournament) and it’s clear their former bond is now an intense rivalry that isn’t only confined to the white lines.
Why? That’s part of Challengers’ intrigue… but the fact that Tashi is sitting courtside has everything to do with it. She’s there in two capacities: after her injury, she became Art’s coach. She also became his wife.
None of these are spoilers; they arrive early in the piece. It’s part of the genius of the film that its structure keeps us hooked: each scene in the present is paid off (and deepened) by one from the past. Big props to Kuritzkes’ screenplay and Marco Costa’s editing for pulling this off, slowly teasing out backstory and drip-feeding us flashbacks that ever so gradually scratch our itches.
Against their fierce matchplay at the Challenger final, we get the puzzle pieces one by one. How did Art & Patrick’s friendship break down? Did Tashi cause it, and was it deliberate? What steps did Art take to win Tashi’s heart — or wait, did Patrick have it first (and lose it)??
Like a rollercoaster five-set final, it’s gripping to watch, and we don’t know who’s on top until the final ace gets smashed. Oh, and handy tip: Zendaya’s hairstyle is a super easy way to keep track of the timelines. Long and curly? They’re in the past as hormonal teens. Wavy bob? She’s married, it’s present day, and there’s a lot more at stake.
How does Challengers explore ambition and greed?
Credit to Zendaya though, the success of her portrayal is due to her skill, not her hairstylists. You genuinely believe she’s a top ranked tennis player. When Art & Patrick see her play for the first time, we share in their awe at her physicality and speed (Zendaya spent three months training with former world №4 and Olympic medallist Brad Gilbert). She builds an immense credibility that her character is the real deal.
More than that, though, is Zendaya’s assured confidence at playing both a teenage prodigy and a top-level career coach and strategist in her 30s. It’s a juggle that could’ve unstuck any number of glamorous A-listers, but she doesn’t hit a single false stroke. When she first gets Art & Patrick alone, goading them into a three-way kiss that experimentally carries on without her, she leans back and grins — and we grin along with her. Even in her teens, Tashi has a power to put the ball exactly where she wants it.
“While she’s ruthless, and I love [that], there’s something to her. I think it’s grief… grief of a career and a life that she never got to live.”
~ Zendaya on her character’s professional ambition
Carried through to the present, that power is what keeps us glued to the story. That’s because, while Art & Patrick are the ones on court, it’s Tashi’s career that’s the real fulcrum here. After her injury, Tashi looks to have coolly handled the emotional upheaval of kissing her identity as a sportsperson goodbye. What Kuritzkes script explores is whether that kind of competitive drive can ever really be put in a box. And if not — what does it morph into?
By pivoting her dreams into managing Art’s career, Tashi still gets to taste fame and success by proxy. It’s obviously working: her face is next to her husband’s on building-sized billboards for luxury cars. She rubs $400 moisturiser into her knee scars. She casually handles hotel and flight logistics with the air of someone who doesn’t need to worry about the price tag.
That’s all threatened, though, by Art weighing up retirement — and if he’s no longer on court, what’s her professional purpose off court? Guadagnino inserts some key moments that flip the “loyal wife” trope into morally murky territory. We see the extreme lengths Tashi goes to keep her husband’s head in the game — and we ponder the blurred line she straddles between merely “managing” Art’s career, and puppeteering it.
Tashi knows that hoisting another trophy will re-fire her husband’s confidence, and keep him playing. She deliberately cajoled him into entering this Challenger for that exact reason. But if he loses the final to Patrick, what we’re watching could be the final match of Art’s pro career. She’s desperate to see her husband win — but is that for his sake, or for hers?
What’s with all the super sweaty slo-mo?
We’re not saying this tasty throuple drama wouldn’t work without it, but Challengers oozes a kind of Euro style that takes the story from medium-well to mouthwatering. Sports are already about physicality: their bodies are literally their working tools. Guadagnino pulls every trick out of his racquet bag to make us sit up and notice those bodies working.
Take the use of slow motion. On the tennis court, it obviously heightens our tension over who’ll win. The technique does more than stretch time, though: it gives us the chance to stare. Not just at their bodies, but into their souls.
Art & Patrick’s tiebreak points in their final set are slowed to an almost comical degree as the (extremely cool) electro-score pounds away like a nightclub. They’re scenes that are destined as queer meme classics, but the lust serves a purpose. With Tashi watching on, the whole physical contest echoes their conquest off the court: it’s a biological, ultra-male battle, played out for the female’s approval. Sport as a mating ritual? You bet.
“What Luca’s really good at is finding sensuality and desire. There’s so much in just glances. The tension builds. Not having the release is a good thing sometimes.”
~ Zendaya on the atmosphere and sexuality of ‘Challengers’
On the flip side, Guadagnino often ramps up the speed to reflect the genuine pace of top level tennis, creating an atmosphere of attack and defence that underlines this isn’t just a game, it’s warfare. Or as Tashi puts it: “Tennis is a relationship.” More than once, we literally flinched in our seats as the (CGI assisted) tennis balls flew directly into our eyeballs at a thousand miles an hour. If Challengers was ever projected in 3D, they’d have to hand out neck braces.
Guadagnino also has a field day decorating his film with homoerotic subtext at every turn. Patrick squeezes Art’s thigh at the thrill of seeing Tashi play. At lunch, they order churros and chomp on the phallic food with a grin. There’s a sauna scene where an ego-driven powerplay (not to mention Patrick’s penis) are barely concealed. And when Tashi quizzes them about “first times”, an admission of mutual masturbation, errr… leaks out. It’s highly-charged drama with a wink, and it works, giving Challengers an unforgettable tension and texture.
So what’s the takeaway from Challengers?
We started this review by asking if Challengers was a film with substance, not just sex appeal. The answer from us is an unequivocal yes. It’s as sharp an analysis of power dynamics in a marriage as any Shiv & Tom scene from Succession, and it easily ranks as the best sporty drama since Moneyball. The darkness that clouds Tashi’s motivations might also challenge your own perceptions as to why and how “healthy ambitions” can be corrupted over time.
Guadagnino’s served us a rare movie Grand Slam: a proper grown-up drama that’s steamy, but weighted enough to take seriously, with loaded dialogue and superb, full throttle performances. Like when you order a lush cocktail that comes with a kids’ sour rainbow strap floating atop the foam, Challengers is still intoxicating and adult, but with a flamboyant finishing touch. Just like peaches, you’ll never look at a tennis ball the same way again.
Originally published at https://good.film.
