Advantage Zendaya in this risqué romance
This tale of love, jealousy, male bonding, and toxicity is eye candy of the best kind; it is game, set, and match for the movie’s gorgeous lead trio
The truly gladiatorial nature of tennis is laid bare in Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers. The grunts and sword-like thrusts of the racquets thrashing the ball and the passions that spill on and o court are all on view in this romantic drama about three very dierent tennis players. The background score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is the expected aural feast — alternating thumping techno beats with moody operatic crescendos.
Told over a somewhat bewildering number of timelines, Challengers follows three tennis prodigies — Tashi (Zendaya) and best friends Patrick ( Josh O’Connor) and Art (Mike Faist) — from their teens to their thirties. In the present day, we see Art and Tashi as a power couple, as Art eases his way back into competitive tennis after an injury.
If Art wins the US Open, he will have a grand slam. Tashi, his coach, gets him a wild card entry into a Challenger event at New Rochelle, New York, to build his con dence. While Tashi and Art are living it up in swish hotel rooms with their daughter Lily (AJ Lister) and Tashi’s mum (Nada Despotovich), Patrick is so down on his luck that he sleeps in his car playing in low-level tennis tournaments.
The movie goes back in time when the three were teenagers. Tashi is a highperforming tennis star on the rise, while Patrick and Art are best friends and doubles partners.
One could look at tennis as a metaphor in Challengers. Would Tashi be any dierent if she were in some other profession? Art is talented but just short of great, while Patrick has one great season left in him but needs Tashi to coax it out of him.
Challengers sees these three good-looking, talented actors play o each other. That nal match can be dinner table conversation till kingdom come.
This tale of love, jealousy, male bonding and toxicity is eye candy of the best kind. It is game, set and match for the gorgeous trio.
Challengers is currently running in theatres.