Image Credit: Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures
Welcome to the latest edition of Weekend Watch, where I recommend (or occasionally warn against) movies or TV shows I’ve been checking out. This week, Zendaya plays a complicated game of human tennis. Follow James on Twitter: @jamwhite and Threads/Instagram: @jammerwhite
Luca Guadagnino is a director whose sense of sensuality is intense –– he’s unafraid to dig into painful emotions and difficult, chaotic love stories. And he’s also got a real eye for skilled talent, having worked with the likes of Timothée Chalamet, Mia Goth and Tilda Swinton. All of them are usually established elsewhere, but he and his writers offer them compelling parts that in the case of Chalamet and Swinton among others keep them coming back.
From the sounds of everything she has said in the press, Zendaya will be joining that list, as this is certainly one of the best roles she’s had in her more recent careers –– and she hasn’t been short of opportunities.
In Challengers, she s Tashi Donaldson, a Venus/Serena Williams-alike tennis sensation who is on the fast track to even bigger success (with clothing lines and other merchandising opportunities lining up). During that exciting time, she meets fellow players Art (Mike Faist) and Patrick (Josh O’Connor), friends who are as close as brothers –– at least until their shared attraction to Tashi poisons that connection. The story hops around in time, including the present day, when Tashi, who had her career ended by injury, is married to Art, who went on to become a champion in his own right but is stuck in a losing rut. When he faces Patrick across the court once more, the swirling, passionate feelings come rising back up again, the old rivalries and jealousies once again aflame.
Thanks to writer Justin Kuritzkes’ carefully orchestrated script and Guadagnino’s knack for visually interesting work, what could be a straightforward story of sports and sexual jealousy becomes something deeper and more emotional, anchored by three excellent performances. Because make no mistake, Faist (who popped in West Side Story) and O’Connor (solid in The Crown but sublime in God’s Own Country) are just as good as Zendaya here. From their excitable puppy dog tennis bro early days to their very different futures (Art as confidence-shattered champ and Patrick as burnout tennis genius), they convincingly bring the different ages of the characters to utterly compelling life. And it’s all scored by pulsing (but never superfluous) work from composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
My sticking point? The endless experimentation in terms of camera placement, which are initially kinetic, but reach the point of near parody when Guadagnino and cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom put the viewpoint on a tennis ball as it’s being whacked over a net. Yes, the final sequence is an impressive feat of tension building and emotional payoff, but the visual trickery, for me, at least, was more distracting than it was effective.
Yet that doesn’t ruin the experience –– Challengers remains a sticky, sweaty, sexy, shouty delight that has more on its mind than an uncomplicated love match.
Challengers is in UK and US cinemas now.