Challengers

What an insane movie. challengers was one of my highest anticipated movies of the year, after seeing the ‘famous scene’ in a trailer. This is Luca Guadagnino‘s latest film, after 2022’s cannibal love story Bones and All, which is a very stark contrast. Challengers stars Zendaya as Tashi Duncan, an ex-tennis player who had to quit due to injury but acts as a coach to her husband, Art (Mike Faist), who (for the majority of the movie) is playing against his long-time friend/rival, Patrick (Josh O’Connor). Before I talk about the positives, I’m gonna get some flaws out of the way, although there aren’t that many. The film flashes back between when the 3 main characters were around 18 years old and present day (when the tennis match is taking place). Sometimes I didn’t know exactly where we were in the timeline but I managed to understand what was happening and how it affected the characters’ relationships down the line. Another thing I didn’t really like was that the sound mixing in certain scenes was a little off. I’m not sure if it was just my screening but I’ve heard others talk about it aswell. For example, in one scene where two characters are arguing, the soundtrack is so much louder than the actual dialogue so it’s difficult to understand them in certain scenes. One final little thing that I didn’t really like was the extreme use of slow motion and I mean EXTREME. The movie could have been about 20 minutes shorter if there wasn’t so much slow-mo in the final set. Other than that, it was perfect. Now for the positives. The performances were absolutely amazing with Zendaya absolutely killing it as usual and the two boys were also very good. I found it funny that I only know Mike Faist from the Original Cast of Dear Evan Hansen and I thought that he was about to break into song after every conversation. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie with acting that has felt as real as this. I actually felt as if I was in the crowd, watching the tennis matches or in the room with them when they were talking. One of the stand out scenes in this film is the infamous scene that everybody is talking about where the three main characters all kiss at the same time. I absolutely loved how the scene was shot and it just felt so smooth. However, my absolute favourite scene was the final set of Art and Patrick’s tennis game at the end. The booming dance music adds to the already high tension as the ball is tossed back and forth. One thing I didn’t expect was to actually become the tennis ball. For about a solid minute of this scene, the camera is at the point of view of the tennis ball, which I found absolutely hilarious. The soundtrack for this film, composed by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is absolutely stunning and aided most of the film very well (other than certain dialogue scenes) and is absolutely heart-pounding. Overall, I think that Challengers is a definite must-watch for Luca Guadagnino fans, Tennis fans, or anybody that just likes a solid drama film. I wholeheartedly recommend that you give this a watch. In my opinion, this is probably the best film that I’ve seen this year so far. 10/10