Best friends Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) and Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor) have just won the Junior U.S. Open Doubles Championship when they witness tennis prodigy Tashi Duncan (Zendaya) decimate her opponent on the way to the Junior Singles Championship. Both smitten they simultaneously pursue her at the winners party that evening only for her to say that she will give her number to the victor of their Singles Final the next day. What follows is a story about three people for whom tennis is life. 

Challengers is ostensibly a sports movie. It actually opens years after the moment these characters initially met at the final of a “challenger” event at a country club. Art is a six time grand slam champion on a losing streak and at a low ebb. This small time challenger event is supposed to be an easy shot at giving him some confidence leading into the U.S. Open. Tashi is his wife and coach. A scar on her knee foreshadowing why she is not out on the court herself. Patrick is Art’s opponent in the event. His natural talent and want to express himself has only ever taken him to the periphery of greatness. A journeyman professional who has never fulfilled his talent. 

As the final plays out between Art and Patrick the film cuts back and forth to key moments in the threesome’s lives. Like the crowd watching the final whose heads go back and forth following the ball from side to side so does the film bounce back and forth in time. It’s a classic sporting movie conceit of revealing the characters as they toil in a key game but this is by no means a classic sports movie. 

At one point in the film one character asks Tashi, “Are we still talking about tennis?” and the response is that she is always talking about tennis. Because Tashi is so focused on tennis and such a fierce competitor that she makes it a different game entirely. So when she can no longer play she turns to coaching with no diminished sense of that will to win. 

Director Luca Guadagnino has done an absolutely fantastic job of making this an intense and sexually charged feature. This is his third feature in recent times that focus on relationships in a less than conventional manner and I think that this tops the likes of Call Me By Your Name and Bones And All for enjoyment. The manner in which writer Justin Kuritzkes’ structures the flashbacks to give the grammar for what is happening between the characters in the final moments and the way Guadagnino deploys the use of slow motion in those key moments is exhilarating. Right up until the perfect ending that should leave you with an intoxicated smile at how everything came together at the end. 

The other most important thing I wanted to talk about in the film is the lead characters and the performances. I will start rather peculiarly with the score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross which is absolutely front and centre and a real highlight of the film. You will have heard me rave about Reznor and Ross’s scores before if you are a regular reader and whilst I have been a huge fan of Reznor since 1994’s The Downward Spiral I believe that he is one of the top composers currently working in film. In the last 2 years they have delivered fantastic scores for Bones And All, Empire Of Light, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem and The Killer (2023). Here their work gives a sense of urgency and tension like no other and very much drives the emotion of the scenes. Then of course we have the three lead characters and three phenomenal performances. It is difficult to quantify just how special this triumvirate is because if any one of them had dipped below the levels of the others then it would have made the story harder to believe. But they are all clearly firing off all cylinders and feeding off of each other because it is utterly fascinating to watch. 

A stunning film and I loved it.