IronWatcher’s review published on Letterboxd:
Watched in the cinema (65th visit in 2024)
What drives sportsmen and sportswomen to peak performances, what motivates them to train for years on end and practice self-discipline? When the three main characters in this film are 18 years old, all doors seem to be open to them in the sport of tennis. 13 years later - over which period the feature film tells their story in a constant back and forth - tennis still plays the leading role in Arts' (Mike Faist), Patrick's (Josh O' Connor) and Tashi's (Zendaya) lives. But things don't seem to be going as well as they once did. Director Luca Guadagnino and screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes didn't have a typical rise or comeback story in mind for the sports movie genre. Although there is also a lot of tennis, this is more about love and the energy it releases.
"Challengers" tells the story of a love triangle whose playing field is always tennis. As 18-year-olds, Art and Patrick are very familiar with each other, but their love for Tashi turns them into rivals. Tashi visits the two youngsters in their hotel room, as they wanted, who are not romantically inclined. She steers the conversation and finally signals that kissing is allowed. It turns out that this trio is not only erotically sizzling between the sexes. Unlike in Guadagnino's "Call Me By Your Name", however, the homosexual love between the two men remains almost entirely unconscious. It is overshadowed by the attraction that Tashi exerts on Art and Patrick. With her determined personality and assertiveness, Tashi serves as a source of inspiration and strength for both of them and promises emotional support.
All three main characters - other characters only appear in passing - are very different. Art is the cool, deliberate type, while Patrick enjoys life, likes it spontaneous and smokes cigarettes. Tashi, on the other hand, is the forward-moving force who tells the other two where to go. The actors and actress, however, only have a limited role to play despite their witty, sparkling exchanges. The non-linear narrative is intensively edited and there are rarely any in-depth scenes like the one in the hotel. The present-day level with the Challengers match in 2019 serves as a bracket for the film, but this becomes a real test of patience, as it is picked apart by the constant flashbacks. It's possible that a scene there merely shows the two players taking up their positions again after a break - and then it's back to the past.
Guadagnino certainly demonstrates a will to style with this film. The whole thing is meant to look chic and young, energetically pulsating and wild. The camera tries out all possible perspectives, even looking up at the players from below the ground as if through glass. There are slow-motion, subjective-looking shots. The most striking, idiosyncratic stylistic device, however, is the music by Trent Raznor and Atticus Ross. When the players are on the court, anyone who has ever watched a tennis match expects an atmosphere of calm, tense concentration, but what happens here? All of a sudden, pulsating, chasing techno rhythms set in at high volume. This must be what the protagonists' lives must feel like right now, in the fast lane, full of risk and emotion! But for a long time, the intensely advertised charms of the love triangle are rather on the back burner, only at the end do things get exciting again.
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