Challengers

Near the start of the film, Tashi tells the two boys that tennis is a relationship. Luca takes this thought and expands it to encapsulate nearly every aspect of the film.  Every dialogue between characters is treated as a match between the two. The conversation will start slow, as one of the characters serves a topic of discussion. The two will engage and will send the conversation back at each other and the music will start to pick up and the cuts become much more aggressive. This continues in exciting fashion until one player comes out on top or the conversation is dropped.  There’s also two matches being played by Art and Patrick. One takes place in the Challengers final and is the driving force of the movie, guiding the film through the over arching match being played which spans years. By that I mean the game of love that Art and Patrick play where the prize is Tashi. These story telling tools are used in such a way that captivated me and held my attention the entire time. It is such a simple way of making dialogue feel intense and impactful, and with such an emphasis on relationships that the emotions between the characters are thick and hang in the air between their rebuttals. I would have given five stars if the constant time swaps weren’t so jarring and hard to follow at times (i know i just complimented the movie for this exact point just deal with it). Zendaya 🤤