‘Challengers’ Review
Stars: Zendaya, Mike Faist, Josh O’Connor | Written by Justin Kuritzkes | Directed by Luca Guadagnino
Up-and-coming tennis star Tashi Duncan (Zendaya) has it all in the palm of her hand — talent, success, and future opportunities. Meanwhile, Art (Mike Faist) and Patrick (Josh O’Connor) are a duo who share a bond beyond their rackets, with the meeker Art being shaped into manhood by the boisterous Patrick. When Tashi’s career stops in its tracks, it’s a duel for attention between the boys, forming an uneasy yet seductive triad.
Oh Luca Guadagnino, you’ve done it again. The acclaimed director has already painted incredibly broad strokes with his somehow cohesive back catalogue, from sexy cannibals in Bones and All to a coven of ravenous witches in Suspiria. Challengers is simultaneously a completely new direction for him and a pleasingly familiar one, combining Guadagnino’s heady loves of sex and power into the layered, unexplored world of competitive sport. Tennis, by itself, is sexy. It doesn’t possess the rigour of rugby or the volatile reputation of football. It is both accessible and a total mystery, luring viewers in year-round for a taste of something that always has another storyline bubbling under the surface.
In effect, that’s exactly what Guadagnino has achieved with Challengers. Shrewdly casting the untouchable everygirl Zendaya as the equally pedestalled Tashi, his constant back-and-forth power dynamic is styled to perfection. As a disco-heavy playlist soundtracks the real sparring — heated arguments, rather than playing over any physical action — the movie guides us succinctly to where we need to be looking, which is anywhere other than a tennis court. Power is sexy, and Guadagnino wastes no time reminding us of that. Colours and human form dance alluringly across the screen, with picture-perfect frames allowing viewers their own set break.
Of course, it’s not just Guadagnino who is doing the heavy lifting. Challengers might be a ménage à trois, but it’s Zendaya who is running rings around her co-stars, not unlike her character. In her strongest career performance to date, Tashi is aloof yet omnipotent, with a tongue the strikes as deadly as a viper and with just as much precision. Really, she’s playing a game of chess, knowing exactly what her end game is before she’s even laid out her first movie. Faist and O’Connor do a compelling job of keeping up, each balancing the other out by stoking just the right amount of fuel to fire Tashi into the burning flames of stardom.
These silly little boys are just Tashi’s silly little playthings, keeping her amused while she dreams of the days before her injury. In the world of Abby Lee Miller, everyone is replaceable, and almost like an overbearing pageant mom, Tashi upholds that. In her world, “everything is sex except for sex, which is power” (to paraphrase Oscar Wilde) and Challengers is the ultimate culmination of it all. If anything, it’s the hottest example of power play ever seen outside of a bedroom.
***** 5/5
Challengers is in cinemas from today, April 26th.
