Luca Guadgnino, director of the smash-hit film “Call Me By Your Name,” is known for his use of highly erotic romance, beautiful visuals and complex emotional quandaries and has once again hit it out of the park with his latest film, “Challengers.” The film follows three professional tennis players: Tashi Duncan (Zendaya) is an up-and-coming tennis star, with Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) and Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor), the two best friends fighting for her affection. They are all great players, but far from great people.
Another common element of Guadgnino’s films, which is again replicated in “Challengers,” is how there is never really a good person, someone to root for. These three players are just that: players, both on and off the field. As the story progresses, all three characters are shown as selfish in their own ways, simply fighting for whatever they want, even when it can become frustrating for the audience.
The three leads shine in this film, with Tashi, Art and Patrick given their own fully fleshed-out characters, always giving the viewers a fascinating character no matter who is on screen. But where the three really shine is in their interactions with one another. The three stars have several points where they interact as a group or just in pairs, and each time the scene is charged with raw, heavy eroticism, leaving the viewer unable to look away. Zendaya, especially, provides viewers with yet another powerful performance. As Tashi Duncan, she is such a tour-de-force that it is shocking to imagine her as anything other than a young tennis phenom.
And just like Guadgnino’s past films, the sex scenes are done quite beautifully, focusing more on the art of implicit action. Each scene is used as a move, a chance at manipulating another, and the actors are clearly putting their all into them. The passion behind these interactions is clear from the emotions and tension felt by all witnessing them happen.
Guadgnino in fact goes above and beyond with this film by introducing a new structural element of a fragmented timeline, with the film jumping back and forth between the trio in their college days and then the present, 14 years later, once their paths have strayed quite far. Using this timeline allows the audience to become emotionally invested in the three characters at different times in their lives.
The soundtrack was also a major plus for the film, with a score helmed by former Nine Inch Nails band members Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. The pair previously worked on films such as “Gone Girl” and “The Social Network,” and their style is again present here, with the uses of intense musical crescendos and recognizable sound bites. The music greatly helped the already tense moments feel even more on edge and provided a catchy beat to the drama.
While the film surrounds tennis and the rising stars of the sport, people of any background of knowledge are able to enjoy the competition. There are never too many terms or complex rules of the sport, making sure the audience can remain in the story.
With “Challengers,” Guagnino had once again knocked it out of the park, taking young stars, giving them a tight script and good direction and creating a masterpiece of a film. After a film like “Challengers,” audiences are surely waiting in excitement for his next endeavor.
