Blu-ray Review: Challengers

By John Corrado

The latest film from Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name, Bones and All), Challengers is a smart, stylish tennis drama built around a trio of captivating performances from Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist.

Zendaya stars in the film as Tashi Duncan, a former tennis rising star who is now coach and manager to her husband Art Donaldson (Mike Faist), who desperately needs a win in order to stay relevant.

Meanwhile, Art’s former tennis partner Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor), who also had a romantic history with Tashi, has become washed up. Art and Patrick have reunited to go head-to-head in a challenger match, and this tense standoff game provides the through-line of the film, as flashbacks reveal the complex history between them.

The screenplay by Justin Kuritzkes (whose partner Celine Song made the exquisite not-quite-a-love-triangle Past Lives last year based around elements of their own life together), explores the fascinating relationship between the three players and the shifting power dynamics between them. It’s a smart script in the way that it sets things up to offer little payoffs later on, taking time to develop each of its three main characters and their complex motivations.

Guadagnino has crafted a thrilling, visually dynamic film. Marco Costa’s brilliant editing remains engaging as it cuts between the different timelines, adding intrigue to the film’s ambitious narrative structure. The central tennis match really allows Costa and cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom (Call Me By Your Name, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives) to show off, including POV and ball’s eye view shots, and even putting the camera under the court.

It’s refreshing to see this sort of intelligent drama made for adult audiences. While Challengers is being sold on the promise of a steamy ménage à trois between three tennis players, it becomes a compelling character drama that has an intense psychosexual tension running through it. There’s a killer score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross score that drives the entire thing, with their new original track “Compress / Repress” providing an awesome end credits needle drop. It’s an electric film.

Film Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)