In 'Challengers,' An Electric Trio Serves Up a Masterclass in Seductive Tension

BJ Colangelo on Luca Guadagnino's latest.

Today, I’m pleased to share BJ Colangelo’s review of Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers, which is out in theaters right now. BJ Colangelo is a writer, podcaster, and pop culture analyst who currently works as the Lead Evening News Editor at /Film and co-hosts the coming-of-age film podcast, This Ends at Prom. She’s a voting member of GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics and her work has been featured in over 20 publications, books, magazines, podcasts, physical media release special features, and other places that confuse her parents.

It took me a long time to understand how anyone could enjoy tennis. As a perennial poor kid, tennis fell under the same umbrella of wealthy, exclusionary activities like skiing, lacrosse, or not crying on the first of the month after paying bills. I became a student aide in my sophomore year of high school, and my assigned teacher was also the school’s tennis coach. I remember asking him one day, “What made you pick tennis when you could have played baseball?” He laughed slightly and invited me to attend a match, explaining that experiencing the game would be more effective than anything he could describe.

He was right.

Tennis is a unique kind of spectator sport. Audiences trade in the cheers and chants of a packed arena filled with hot dogs, beer, and flashy dancers for a court of silent observation, as if the crowd is still obeying the rule from the game’s origins not to speak without the permission of the King. The echo of the ball as it rallies between players doubles as an ever-increasing heartbeat. Players pant, sweat, and exert their bodies with such ferocity that when someone finally does score, the audience can’t help but let sound escape from them. 

It’s a lot like finally giving yourself over to an orgasm after trying to stay quiet while fucking, an activity I was practicing with such fervor at that age that you’d think I was trying to go pro.

This is the specific flavor of tension and release dripping from Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers, providing delicious direction to Justin Kuritzkes’ compelling screenplay, where the thrill of competition rivals the thrill of staying up late and sneaking glances of a Skinemax flick between the tracking of stolen cable. Challengers centers on Tashi Duncan (Zendaya), a former tennis prodigy turned coach after a career-ending injury who has since married fellow tennis star Art Donaldson (Mike Faist). Art is currently battling against his former best friend Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor) in a lower-level competition to hopefully recapture the spark that brought him to the game in the first place. But their rivalry – known as “Fire and Ice” in the world of the film –  goes beyond the court and dates back years. As they rally back and forth, the film gives us glimpses into their pasts and lets us see just how long their lives have been in direct response to Tashi’s commands. 

Art and Patrick’s friendship, we learn, was not destroyed by the competitive nature of tennis, but their rivalry regarding Tashi. The intensely marketed scene in the motel room that has satiated audiences rewatching the film’s trailer for months reveals that this dynamic is less of a love triangle than it is a domme playing with her submissives. She makes out with both men individually, then collectively, before removing herself from the equation altogether to admire her creation of two men willing to do anything to appease her. In a perfect world, these three would be in a throuple, but these are tennis players we’re talking about here — tradition and respectability reign supreme. Guadagnino is constantly toying with this juxtaposition, gooning the audience without ever actually giving up the real thing. This film, and to an extent the game of tennis, understands that the edging and anticipation are infinitely more interesting than the final score. After all, adding points to the board means you’re one step closer to the end of the game… and where’s the fun in that?  

The two-time Emmy Award-winning Zendaya has more than proven her abilities as a performer, but Challengers gives her the space to silence any “but she did Spider-Man movies” naysayers who dare to doubt her power. This film would not succeed without a woman so captivating, so sensational, and so undeniably sexy that the audience completely understands why Art and Patrick are willing to risk it all just to feel the pulse of her glances. Rue on Euphoria may have helped Zendaya transition out of the realm of child acting, but Challengers is career-best work solidifying her as a bonafide movie star. 

The camera focuses on O’Connor and Faist’s physicality in a manner typically reserved for women. cCinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom echoes his Academy Award-nominated work on Call Me By Your Name by effortlessly capturing what it looks like to yearn for sweaty twinks. O’Connor has been impressing for years on The Crown and will certainly develop his own rabid fandom once more folks have had the chance to see the fantastical La chimera, but Guadagnino deserves credit for understanding what musical theatre nerds have known for over a decade — Mike Faist has got the sauce. After my screening, I took to the app formerly known as Twitter to see what fans were saying about my fave to find a description from writer Lucy Ford that was too spot-on not to share: “Mike Faist you’re so hot like if a sleepy cartoon mouse came to life and then got really into cross-fit.”

But for my money, the true star of Challengers is the score from Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor, a pulse-pounding flood of late ‘80s/early ‘90s goth club music sound that should certainly remind the audience that one half of this duo wrote Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer,” a song that is probably on more Spotify sex playlists than anything else in recorded history. 

At times it feels like Challengers might be a little too chaotic to follow timeline-wise with the frequency of volleying between past and present, but that’s all part of the charm. The unpredictability keeps the film feeling like we’re caught in the middle of an actual tennis game. It differs from the majority of sports movies in that the actual score isn’t the goal. It’s about the dynamics of the game, and why witnessing a showdown of “Fire and Ice” is worth watching. 

After all, tennis is a game that starts with “love,” but the true excitement is seeing how the players move beyond it. -BJ Colangelo

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Stuff David Chen Has Made

• On this week’s Decoding TV, Patrick and I discussed the season finale of Shogun, which sticks the landing and cements this show as one of the greatest television works of the modern era.

• On The Filmcast, the crew and I discussed Rebel Moon: Part Two - The Scargiver, which was not only a bad film but made me actively irritated at this entire cynical enterprise.

• [PAID] On my personal Patreon, I spoke with my wife about the awkward process of splitting a check with friends at a restaurant, then chronicle my attempts to lower my phone screen time. Listen here.