After watching the trailer you'd be forgiven for thinking Challengers is a teen sex comedy about two guys trying to sleep with their tennis coach. To say that this is underselling this film would be like saying Roger Federer was kind of decent with a racquet.
The film begins with tennis champion Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) trying to prepare for the US Open after a career threatening injury. His wife and coach Tashi (Zendaya), herself a prodigy who's playing career was ended by injury, enters him in a small time challenger event to help grow his confidence. Plans for an easy win go out the window when he comes up against Patrick Zweig (Josh O'Conner), a journeyman player who is Art's former best friend and Tashi's former boyfriend. The narrative cuts between the match, the week leading up to the match and the proceeding decade, charting the relationship between the three characters while the match plays out and reflects who is on top at various stages of their history.
The character work on show here is outstanding. You'd be hard pressed to describe any of them as particularly good people, they're motivated by varying degrees of selfishness, resentment and arrogance but the three of them are so rounded and real that you can't dislike anyone for long. It helps that they all drip their own distinct brand of sex appeal. Art is the all American boy next door, sensitive and dedicated. Opposite him is Patrick, held back by arrogance but smothered in charm and machismo. In the middle is Tashi, displaying and only interested in perfection, cutting down anyone who isn't up to her standard (which is everyone) with a withering glare. All three are the product of sublime writing fusing with ace acting, when they aren't delivering debut screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes zingers their faces tell you everything you need to know.
The focus may be on messy relationships but Challengers also stands as a great sports movie. A tennis based dramedy may seem an odd choice for director Luca Guadagnino but it turns out his in your face style suits it perfectly. He has a ball filming the matches, using every possible angle and every camera shot imaginable to draw in the viewer, there is no need for even a passing interest in the sport to enjoy it here. The way the characters personalities are intrinsically linked to the their attitudes towards tennis means the human drama is linked to the sporting in a way other film rarely come close to.
A couple of things do make Challengers a little challenging. The time jumping is constant and not always accompanied by a notification, meaning it can occasionally take a minute or two to establish which timeline you are in. The pumping techno lite score matches the films energy but it's full on and threatens to overrun the on screen events. There's also an argument to be made that it runs a little long, 130 minutes is hardly a marathon by todays standards but the screenplay could be a smidge leaner.
It would be a horrendous unforced error for anyone to allow these minor niggles to stop them checking out what Challengers is serving up. Funny and clever it's one of Guadagnino's best films, a sparkling calling card from a new screenwriter and a fantastic showcase for the talents of it's three leads.
9 balls pressed to the neck of a racquet out of 10.
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