Challengers
Challengers (2024)
In 2017 director Luca Guadagnino landed on the Oscar trail with the visually seducing Call Me by Your Name. He took us all on holiday to Italy and fed us peaches. I don’t know how this sorcerer does it but for two hours you are transported. The man likes to film blue skies and sunshine and this pasty Brit appreciates it. With Challengers he delivers again.
Tashi is a former tennis pro who now coaches her champion husband, Art. He’s succumbed to the tennis version of writer’s block so she shrewdly enrols him in a tournament where he faces off against his former best mate and professional doubles partner, Patrick. Sweat ensues.
You don’t so much as watch Guadagnino’s films, you absorb them. My heart was racing throughout each game, I was leaning in to listen to hushed conversations and I’m pretty certain I could taste the sweat. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross provide a thrilling techno score which added to the feeling of an imminent heart attack.
If you’ve seen Euphoria you know Zendaya can surrender to the material with vein throbbing intensity but here she gets under your skin with a scowling subtle coolness usually demonstrated by Rosamund Pike. Her intimidating bob helps.
Josh O’Connor sheds his Prince Charles petulance for the cocksure swagger of an entitled yet talented cad. The cold dead expression he gives when he drops the bravado is enormously satisfying. But why do I want to copy his mismatched uncouth tennis court ensemble? Damn that charming scoundrel.
Mike Faist, who stole the show in Spielberg’s remake of West Side Story with his genuine prohibition-era speech, fits in ideally here as a mouse waging an exhausting battle between his imposter syndrome, his inner-saboteur and his unexplored desires.
Gifted storytellers allow you to think you’re watching something unchoreographed; the anxious tidying of the hotel when Tashi knocks on the door. Or the diner scene with the stool pull and the churro snatch. It felt voyeuristic. And we’re so saturated with overly sexualised images every day that you forget the power of a kiss. It felt like this kiss went on for days and I was hypnotised.
The back and forth time hop ensured an exciting pace to the narrative, with scenes easily flipping from an innocent era reminiscent of Dawson’s Creek to a more sinister vibe of a modern day Basic Instinct. All the while unexpectedly keeping humour at the forefront. Oh yeah and there’s tennis.
10 I TOLD YA thumbs up! 👍🏻
