Does director Luca Guadagnino regularly watch tennis? Is he a fan of the sport? I would like to venture a guess and answer in the negative. Which is why the tennis portions feel a bit wobbly in his latest film, Challengers. As a fan of the sport, I kept shaking my head seeing the director not paying heed to the rhythm of the game. Known for his sultry, moody, colourful films (Call me By Your Name) – Guadagnino seems to be trying a bit of everything.
A VFX ball flies off the racquet for our three principal characters disappearing into our screen, we see snorricam shots of the person serving, we see the PoV of the ball as it gets pummelled across the court, and there’s also the ultra-slow motion close-ups of the drenched faces of the athletes. It did take a while, but by the end of the film I began to enjoy Guadagnino’s irreverence towards the tennis sequences here, because he’s trying to get through to something deeper: the mind of a competitor, and what ignites them.
It’s love at first serve for both Patrick (Josh Connor) and Art (Mike Faist) when they see Tashi Duncan (Zendaya) take the court as a teen sensation. It’s all laid out for her – she will become a world no. 1, she has the looks for someone who will effortlessly adorn hoardings for her own apparel line, cologne ads. She’s on the cusp of becoming a one-person enterprise, like most professional American athletes. And as something both Patrick and Art attest to more than once during the film, “she’s incredibly hot!” It’s this ribald frankness that defines Guadagnino’s films.
All three Patrick, Art and Tashi are on the cusp of a promising tennis career. They meet in a USTA tournament – and none of their lives are the same anymore. Initially, Tashi and Patrick are in a relationship – as he turns pro, and she pursues a college education at Stanford. Art putting on the facade of a supportive friend, also secretly pines for Tashi, while studying with her at Stanford. Despite their singular bond with each other, what also aids this intimacy is how they also happen to all speak like a tennis athlete would. Very often mid-way through a conversation, a character asks – “Are we still talking about tennis?”
Guadagnino seems interested in tennis as a metaphor for life — sometimes you’re walking on air, and most of the time the ball and racquet feel heavier than they are and you’re sweating profusely. In one of her early scenes, Tashi talks about how ‘tennis is a relationship’. You’re deeply intimate with the opponent, able to gauge the slightest shift in body language, non-verbal cues and their temperament.
Justin Kuritzkes’ screenplay takes a seemingly straight-forward story about three headstrong characters, and how their relationship evolves over a decade and a half. Paired with Marco Costa’s brisk editing where the film keeps cutting between present and the past, and Trent Reznor-Atticus Ross’ propulsive nu-disco score, ensures this seemingly intense love triangle (set in the world of sports) gets its own kinetic energy. Mere conversations feel like sword fights, confrontations simmering for years feel like a climactic battle, and the tennis rallies become that much heftier with all the off-court context being fed to the audiences through flashbacks.
Mike Faist is brilliant as the dogged Art Donaldson, the conservative athlete, who operates within his limits and plays to his strengths. He puts his head down, and mostly manages to win. Josh O’Connor, who humanised Prince Charles on The Crown (2019), is sensational as Patrick. He’s the opposite of the multiple-Grand Slam winning Art – ranked over 200, living a frugal life, and barely eking out a living from tennis. And yet, Patrick seems to have this air about him, he knows who he is and all his unfulfilled potential galvanise the key moments in a match.
Most of all, Challengers is a showcase for Zendaya as Tashi Duncan – a former prodigy with the world at her feet, whose promise is cut short after a freak leg injury ends her career. Later, she takes on the role of Art’s coach and his life partner. A teen sensation, who emerged from Disney to a superhero franchise, there are quite a few parallels between the actor and the character, given that Zendaya is now moving towards the space of a ‘serious’ actor/producer. As Tashi Duncan, Zendaya knits together a laser-focused spouse, whose intensity can be unnerving. But in moments of extreme pressure – something most professional athletes are subjected to on a weekly basis – her intensity can be the exact thing one needs from their team and spouse.
Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers is one of the more fun film-viewing experiences I can remember recently – simply for how much campy juice the filmmaker finds in the mundane world of ‘perfect’ tennis players. After all, whether it’s a fierce rally on court or a slowly-depleting relationship, all it needs is one spark of imagination. Guadagnino’s film seems to know the value of a worthy adversary, even when it’s your own spouse or best friend.
