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.
Now here is my theory on this film. I see it as a queer reading of heterosexuality. Some suggest it is a bisexual movie but I don't believe it is. It is looking at heterosexual men and seeing how much homosexuality is present in their relationships with each other. There is a significant amount of attraction that is behind platonic straight male friendships/relationships and that attraction is made up of many things, including physical attraction. It's why masculinity can often be so essential to many hetero men. The characters look at each other, bring each other into proximity to each other, even catch themselves looking at other men. But in the end they remain straight, and not in a closeted way, but in a way that recognizes how much same sex attraction is the basis for straight male friendships. The film does this vividly and subversively because this is a truth that is so dangerous to most people's mindsets.
The film is set as a tennis match between two old friends, two straight men. The film explicitly compares tennis to sex, as well as figuratively doing so. They grunt and sweat and push each other. Just like straight men do in sports together all the time. Challengers is about the sexuality between straight men that they keep just out of reach. This isn't bisexuality. Bi men embrace same gender sex. This is heterosexuality deconstructed and it's dangerously sexy.
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