Challengers (2024) | REVIEW

Directed by Luca Guadagnino — Screenplay by Justin Kuritzkes.

The Palermo-born Italian auteur Luca Guadagnino is fast rising into the ranks of becoming one of my favorite current-day European filmmakers. His transformative and beautiful Call Me By Your Name, of his Desire trilogy, blew me away in ways that I hadn’t anticipated. While I’m not sure I like it more than the film he remade, Guadagnino’s reworking of Suspiria had a vibe and a climax that has made certain chilling images stick with me. Then a couple of years ago, he reteamed with Timothée Chalamet to make a sensational genre-bending cannibalistic romance film, in Bones and All, which is probably more of a cult film than anything that would appeal to a wide audience. His latest film, however, is easily Guadagnino’s most accessible film yet. While I don’t think it’s his best film, it’s easily one of the most entertaining and inventively shot films I’ve seen this year. Challengers is a stylistic, sexy, and sweaty sports love triangle drama that gets the most out of the subgenres it fits in.

Presented non-linearly, Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers follows tennis players and best friends Art Donaldson (played by Mike Faist) and Patrick Zweig (played by Josh O’Connor), as their shared obsession with the sport and competition, leads them to both be infatuated with Tashi Duncan (played by Zendaya), a female tennis player with loads of potential and a clear idea of what her life must be like to achieve the success she so desires. When the three eventually meet, they start to flirt and there is a connection between all three of them which they may or may not have acted upon thereafter. When, years later, Art and Patrick — now estranged from one another and on different career paths — face off in a so-called challenger tournament, old animosity and chemistry resurface and secrets are slowly revealed. Meanwhile, Tashi is caught in the middle, as she is both frustrated by the lack of ambition of the person she hitched her wagon to and tempted by an old fling.

Challengers is a fireworks show of a film precisely because it manages to work both as an effective and blood-pumping sports film and a distinctive Luca Guadagnino film. The Italian auteur is known for his use of, and interest in, eroticism (often homoeroticism) and he often puts his characters in positions where they get to let loose or show off through dancing (both spontaneous and rehearsed). Here we both see characters dance with passion, but we also see how tennis itself, and its routines or spontaneity, can express character in wonderful, shattering, and breathtaking ways. Guadagnino’s sensibilities are all about a cinema of desire, and it comes to full effect with the way he presents his main characters. These are basically fallible Greek gods drenched in sweat and defined by their levels of competitiveness both on and off the court — inside and outside of a romantic relationship. Guadagnino’s interest in voyeurism shines through in his trance-like moments of slow-motion. Make no mistake, the sport of tennis is the perfect vehicle to visually communicate the lust, longing, and catharsis of his steamy love triangle drama, which was penned by Justin Kuritzkes. In Kuritzkes and Guadagnino’s world of tennis, the sport is all about an on-court relationship, as one character mentions, and a connection that can culminate in a sports climax with the power to make you swoon. 

Visually it is a sight to behold, as Guadagnino and cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom have orchestrated some really inventive and cool ways in which tennis scenes can be at their most kinetic and engaging on a character level, as well as made conversations have the zing to volley back and forth in sports fashion using whip pans. The film features stylish slow-motion that doesn’t get old, increasingly inventive perspective or POV shots (from the players, from underneath the court, and from the ball as it goes back and forth). Some visual effects work has obviously been used to make the ball fly back and forth with high speed, but it never takes you out of the film. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have crafted an instantly iconic musical score that takes the film to a whole other level entirely with its electrically energetic techno style. The score often kicks into overdrive when a scene includes moments that hit on the characters’ passion, drive, ambition, desire, and competitiveness, and it sometimes takes you by surprise.

There is a charm and a cheekiness to the perfectly cast main trio, who have sizzlingly strong chemistry and all complement each other. Early in 2024, Zendaya has already turned in two of her best-ever film performances with her turn in Dune: Part Two and now here in Challengers, where she gets to play a driven person with an insatiable ambition within the world of tennis, which she can’t make real on her own. She’s terrific throughout. Then you have Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor both of whom do a good job of capturing the different stages of their characters’ careers, with Faist being incredibly charming in certain scenes. O’Connor, in moments, carries his roguish washed-up tennis star character with an energy that resembles that of a Han Solo type, and then, whenever he gets to play his character at his most mischievous, he is impossible to take your eyes off.

Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers is all about sweat, lust, ambition, relationships, and the placement of tennis balls.  It is an exhilarating film from start to finish whose only false notes are the overwhelming amount of times it jumps around in its non-linearly unfolding narrative. On top of nailing its auteur’s cinema of desire feel and style, the film’s visuals are kinetic and inventive, the editing is extremely sharp, the acting and writing are gripping, and the unforgettable musical score is so distinctive and energetic. It’s another brilliant film from one of the most exciting European auteurs working today — game, set, and match to Guadagnino!

9 out of 10

– Review Written by Jeffrey Rex Bertelsen.