Challengers

Challengers

Tennis player turned coach Tashi has taken her husband, Art, and transformed him into a world-famous Grand Slam champion. To jolt him out of his recent losing streak, she signs him up for a "Challenger" event — close to the lowest level of pro tournament — where he finds himself standing across the net from his former best friend and Tashi's former boyfriend.

  • Released: 2023-09-15
  • Runtime: 131 minutes
  • Genre: Drama, Romance
  • Stars: Zendaya, Mike Faist, Josh O'Connor, Darnell Appling, Nada Despotovich, Chris Fowler, Mary Joe Fernández, A.J. Lister, Doria Bramante, Christine Dye, Kevin Collins, Burgess Byrd, Naheem Garcia, Jake Jensen, Hailey Gates, Brad Gilbert, Shane T Harris, James Sylva, Jason Tong, Konrad Ryba
  • Director: Luca Guadagnino
 Comments
  • gmezzanatto - 29 June 2024
    Disappointing and irritating
    This movie is disappointing in representing tennis as metaphor of life and sex and clearly shows a superficial knowledge of tennis world and game. Unprofessional and irritating in filming tennis action and games as there is clearly no serious research in the representation of tennis world. The final sequence of the movie is not only unrealistic, which per se wouldn't be a problem, but ridiculous and irritating. The performance of Mike Faist and Josh O'Connor interpreting the two tennis players is equally irritating. The only star of the movie is Zendaya, beautiful and convincing in her role throughout the film.
  • alessandroletobarone - 19 June 2024
    One of the worst movies I've ever watched unfortunately
    I was ready to give it a 3 out of 10, but the ending ruined it all completely. All that tension build up throughout the movie was brought about for no reason at all. The ending is the most anti-climatic thing ever, which doesn't make a lot of sense given how the entire movie tends to it. The music in the movie felt spot on sometimes, other times was just super annoying. Characters are very weird. They're soooo superficially depicted. It's a story that has so much potential, but that portraits its characters in such a simplistic was that it was pretty clear how they would develop their own arch, from the beginning. The story it tells covers what?, more than 10 years. Characters' growth is just drafted, no complexity at all, no real reason behind some major choises, jee it was excruciating to be honest. Also, I noticed so much inconsistency, like really characters are either bad written or total idiots. Maybe both :(

    Good points: photography and costumes work well

    Had high expectation but it was a total flop.
  • dawbros - 13 June 2024
    Could've been great.
    I really wanted to like this movie, but I'm afraid the plot is not engaging enough to keep you waiting that long (more than two hours) for some resolution, and it doesn't deliver. In the end, I didn't care about any of the characters. They drowned an otherwise decent, well acted, beautifully shot film with the same techno music over and over, slow-mos, and Patrick doing the same smile in every scene that he's in.

    I'd ve loved that they explored a little bit more in the ambiguity of Patrick and Art's sexuality (like they were doing at the beginning of the movie). The second half of the film wasn't really going anywhere, it kept going in circles, and in the end, they stretched the last scene again with the same music and slow-mos to the point that instead of building tension, it just got boring.

    On a side note,what was that last point?? Seemed like pickleball.

    The movie is great to look at, but not so great to watch.
  • sarahjn99 - 9 June 2024
    Loved it! Not even a massive tennis fan!
    But is this movie really about tennis?

    I mean yes, if it's your thing, it's beautifully shot and they do play a lot... but as Tashi states at the beginning- great tennis is a relationship.

    As an ambivalent tennis fan I was more interested in seeing Luca direct Zendaya and see how the relationship played out. I love his movies and the way he uses imagery, nuance and subtext, he draws complicated relationships, without shying away from, well, anything.

    I loved it. I felt a little like I'd watched something more akin to Closer; the relationships are front and centre and they are compelling to watch.

    This is going to be a movie I watch many many times, I know that already.