’Challengers’ is a heady, vibrant mix of sex and sports

Art Donaldson and his wife and coach, former tennis prodigy Tashi Duncan arrive at a low-ranked tennis tournament to prepare for the US Open. Though highly ranked and successful, Art is on a losing streak and nursing several injuries while Tashi is reconsidering their relationship, professionally and romantically. However, when their former friend Patrick Zweig arrives at the tournament, their shared history of intense bonds and sexual rivalry comes to the surface on the tennis court...

'Challengers' is a rare treat, in that it's a movie that plays the tennis, the sex, the intensity, and the competition all at the same speed. There's a point, early on in the movie, when Josh O'Connor and Mike Faist have first met Zendaya and find themselves enamoured."I'd let her f**k me with the racket," O'Connor remarks in a breathless trance.

As you'd expect, each of the three characters are clearly distinctive in a way that makes them easy to read once the tension flies up.'s Zweig is hungry and desperate, eyeing everything around him hungrily and devouring it just the same. Mike Faist's character is, by definition, calculated and efficient in contrast to O'Connor. Zendaya is planted in the middle, pulling the strings and ultimately a better player than either of them - on or off the court.

In the hands of a lesser director, 'Challengers' would probably be much less opaque and far more conventional. Yet with Luca Guadagino, it's all deliberate. There is a clear commitment to making these characters sharp and the momentum of their eventual confrontation charges the whole thing. The colours are charged and vital, the cinematography captures the physicality like it's a dance sequence, andand Atticus Ross shoots it to life.

Challengers Challengers

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