Directed by Luca Guadagnino
Showing at FACT Picturehouse from April 26th 2024
Reviewed by Nick Daly
Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist’s faces appear, in close-up and slow-motion form, before the Warner Brother’s logo even appears. Their collective energy is apparently so palpable that it can reconfigure a film’s entire structure. It’s a bold filmmaking decision that, fortunately, is maintained throughout Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers.
The year is 2019. Tashi (Zendaya) and Art (Faist) are a wealthy power couple in sport. Under her coaching, he’s a top professional tennis player. They’re also a little romantically-stifled. Struggling after an injury, Tashi enters Art in a Challenger event (an entry-level tennis competition) in the hope of giving him a comeback. Meanwhile, Patrick (O’Connor), an unknown player living out of his car and scraping by on charm, is entering the same event. A few weeks later, Art and Patrick ultimately face each other in the Challengers final; Tashi watching intensely behind her sunglasses from the crowd. Then, the film flashbacks thirteen years earlier. Turns out, these three have a bit of a history.
Challengers bounces back and forth, both structurally and narratively, like a game of tennis; switching between timelines as chaotically as the interplay between the three characters. The relationships and the tennis so intertwined that the sex becomes as strategic as the tennis and the tennis becomes as erotic as the sex. Anchored by the final tennis match between Art and Patrick, the film handles its nonlinear narrative in a way that quite miraculously never feels forced or confusing, but always compelling.
In 2006, best friends Art and Patrick, fuelled by hormones and fresh from winning at the US Open, share an infatuation with young tennis prodigy Tashi. After inviting her to their hotel room after a party, Challengers sits comfortably with other notable ménage à trois films like Alfonso Cuoron’s Y Tu Mama Tambien. In one of the film’s most captivating scenes, Tashi leans back onto the bed. The film’s soundtrack, subdued beforehand, begins to intensify and overtake the scene. The camera lens zooms in. She smiles to herself, watching as Art and Patrick kiss each other in front of her. It’s filmmaking at its most absorbing and exhilarating.
The whole film crackles with this type of sexual energy. Italian director Luca Guadagnino brings the slow-burning sensuality from his previous films like Call Me By Your Name, but turns the thermostat up even higher. Sweat-drenched limbs are on display in almost every scene; the camera lens completely enamoured with the beauty of its three lead actors. The effect is almost campy, like a feature-length version of Eric Prydz’s Call On Me music video, but the film is so exquisitely directed by Guadagnino, and anchored by three very solid performances, that it never seems to devolve into trashiness.
Trent Reznor’s unexpectedly aggressive techno score pulsates throughout. The repetitive beat is synonymous, perhaps not unintentionally, with music in pornography. Occurring not just during intense tennis matches but also spontaneously during conversations, it gives the effect of straining to hear people talking in the middle of a sticky 90’s club. To further skew this off-kilter nature, melodramatic piano notes and even a choir are heard at some points. You’ll leave the cinema completely bewildered by the score or absolutely loving it.
The film’s finale consists of the most visually arresting tennis match you’ll most likely ever see, like a very artistic Adidas advert. Every filmmaking technique is pulled out of the bag as the sport is captured from every conceivable angle. At one point the viewer themselves become a tennis ball being struck back and forth across the court. It’s captivating to watch even when ignoring any narrative context.
Ultimately, of course, the tennis match doesn’t really matter at all. Despite featuring quite a lot of it, the film isn’t actually about tennis. “You don’t know what tennis is,” Tashi says to Patrick soon after they meet. When he questions this, she simply responds, “It’s a relationship.” To solidify this statement, Challengers cuts to black before a final score of the match is even revealed, and it hits you – not unlike a tennis racket – it was only ever about the three of them.