Zendaya, Mike Faist, and Josh O’Connor star in the made-in-Massachusetts ‘Challengers,’ coming to theaters April 26
By Dana Barbuto/Boston Movie News
Luca Guadagnino’s “Challengers” is like an erotic Rorschach test: different people will see different things. Whether you view Tashi Duncan (Zendaya) as a hero or villain, she is complicated and messy yet singularly focused on her one true love: tennis. She wins at all costs, makes no apologies about it, and isn’t about to prop up her male counterparts just because it’s expected. Watching her wield her power, be it from center court, the front row, or the bedroom, is intoxicating. She’s an ace.
Long-legged and slim, with a luminescent beauty, Zendaya (“Dune: Part Two”) is utterly believable as someone who could hook two men in only a few minutes. Tashi is the wife and coach of tennis superstar Art (Mike Faist, the “West Side Story” breakout). She’s sidelined because of a career-ending knee injury—though it did little to quell her competitiveness. When Art, whose love of the game is fading, prepares to face an old friend, Patrick (Josh O’Connor, Prince Charles on “The Crown”), in a Challenger tournament, the second tier of competition, their complicated past is sweatily resurrected.
In a narrative that twists and turns like a well-placed topspin, “Challengers” unfolds nonlinearly, opening at the end of the story with Art and Patrick squaring off in a match they both need to win. Cut to 13 years ago, when Art and Patrick have been roommates since boarding school, champion doubles partners known as “Fire & Ice,” and best friends with a sexual tension that hints at something more. Along comes tennis phenom Tashi, and faster than you can say, hotel-room threesome, a thruple is born. In a bit of foreshadowing, Tashi warns the boys that she’s “not a homewrecker.”
Time passes. Tashi dates Patrick, but she marries Art. How the tennis ball bounces from one court to the other is all explained in the script by Justin Kuritzkes, Celine Song’s (“Past Lives”) husband, making his feature debut.
With a precision serve, Guadagnino (“Call Me By Your Name”) tells the story with his usual clear sense of style and vision. His camera captures every smoldering stare, subliminal gesture, and sexual subtext. Just follow the food as phallic symbols—hot dogs, bananas, churros—and you’ll know who will end up in whom’s arms by the end of the movie. In that sense, the film is predictable. Look deeper, and you’ll discover that “Challengers” has multiple layers, not to mention more twists than the Roger Federer vs. Rafael Nadal 2008 Wimbledon finals.
I loved every zig and zag, every tête-à-tête. Like “Saltburn,” the wilder, the better. Faist, Zendaya, and O’Connor are so unselfconscious as actors that their maneuvering has a kind of innocence, and their potent chemistry takes over the movie. “Challengers” is also elevated by Sayombhu Mukdeeprom’s cinematography, capturing the intensity of the tennis matches and the simmering tension between the characters. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s thumping techno score further enhances the film’s sizzle.
“Challengers” isn’t really about tennis; it’s about desire and lust, ambition and power. Tennis is just a metaphor for sex, with each serve, volley, and grunt representing the push-pull of the movie’s central threesome. Love is a losing proposition in tennis, but in “Challengers,” it’s everything.
Massachusetts ready for its closeup
“Challengers” is set mainly in New York with detours to Atlanta and California, but local viewers might notice some familiar haunts, from a Speedway Gas Station to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. The movie was filmed on location in the Back Bay and East Boston, with cameras also rolling in Bedford, Beverly, Braintree, Canton, Framingham, Lynn, and Norton from April through June 2022. Wheaton College stands in for Stanford University, and White Stadium in Franklin Park provides the backdrop for the Atlanta Open. Wedgewood Swim and Tennis Club in Bedford doubles for the setting of the Challenger match in New Rochelle, New York.
‘Challengers’
Rating: R for language throughout, some sexual content and graphic nudity
Cast: Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, Mike Faist
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Writer: Justin Kuritzkes
Running time: 131 minutes
Where to watch: In theaters Friday
Grade: A-
Boston Movie News 