Challengers (2024)

An ending can make a movie. Challengers is solid from start to finish but it is that finish, an intense final few moments, which ratchet up the energy, a tense - awkward - erotic - exhilarating energy, to the point where it is almost unbearable. And then release... and emotion, afterglow. You see early on Zendaya's character describes a tennis match as a relationship, like having sex. And Challengers delivers a final climax that... well... you have to experience to believe. 

Challengers is about a messy and captivating conflagration of relationships. It is set over one single tennis match, with flashbacks to flesh out the backstory that got them there, and why every volley, every grunt, and every bead of sweat, has meaning. Kuritzkes and Guadagnino weave a complicated and enticing web between their three leads that is full of innuendo, passion, and subterfuge so that everyone is always just off their game. And it comes to this moment, this match, and three people who are interconnected so intimately. 

My main critique of Guadagnino's work is the way he almost always hides his queerness in metaphor. Challengers feels like this is breaking out, but never quite escapes. It is always bubbling just under the surface in way that implies a ubiquitous presence yet integration into all relationships. Sex is a part of each connection. Desire, lust, jealousy, security. Here Guadagnino's reluctance to let his queerness explode into the world provides a layer of meaning and commentary on the relationships between men, between male friends, that in many ways is more embracing of queerness than his gay love tragedy Call Me By Your Name. 

And so much of this film is about the screen power that Zendaya wields. She is a force that both commands her costars and the audience, but also finds quiet vulnerability in her brokenness. Certainly O'Connor and Faist are at the top of their game here, both delivering layered and meaningful portrayals of their characters and the energy between them, but it is Zendaya owning everything about this film that makes it all come together in all is delicious messiness.  

Challengers is, as you have likely heard, sexy. Yes Guadagnino lingers on his stars' bodies. He makes them grunt and sweat and look at each other like they can't look away. But it is more than just the bodies of the actors. It is the way he constructs their characters, their interactions, which always keep the level of sexual tension at it height. Challengers will make you need a cold shower because of the way it gets in your head. 

And then there is that ending. And all you can do is sit back in your cinema seat and breathe. 

Challengers

Starring: Zendaya, Josh O'Connor, Mike Faist

Director: Luca Guadagnino

Writer: Justin Kuritzkes