There’s a loudness to Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers that you might not anticipate, if you primarily associate the director with his melancholy romance Call Me By Your Name. But here, the famed director has traded Sufjan Stevens for Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, delivering a propulsive, captivating, and sometimes horny story of how love and competition might not always be so different.
Things begin in 2006, when best friends Art (Mike Faist) and Patrick (Josh O’Connor) first meet Tashi (Zendaya) — they’re all teenage rising stars in the world of professional tennis, buzzing with the adrenaline of being young and hot and gifted. The love triangle that forms between them is instantaneous, though its shape changes as the years pass, with Tashi ultimately ending up married to Art, with a daughter and an injury that keeps her on the literal sidelines, managing his career.
While their paths cross multiple times over time, things come to a head at a 2019 “challengers” tournament. Art is playing to build up his confidence for more high-profile competitions. A down-on-his-luck Patrick is playing to keep his bank balance above zero. And Tashi’s watching for a sign as to what all of their futures hold.
Justin Kuritzkes’s nonchronological script dances nimbly around its decade-plus timeline, with title cards and Tashi’s haircut helping the audience keep track of what’s happening when; this is a film where every detail feels meticulously well-observed, a film confident enough to include a running plot thread involving a borrowed T-shirt without ever calling attention to it in the dialogue.
Also, the presence of brands in these characters’ lives plays an unspoken but particularly powerful role, a giant car billboard serving as a looming reminder of how sports and business co-mingle in these characters’ lives. Non-tennis fans may struggle to remember the rules of scoring, and the difference between a set and a match; meanwhile, tennis fans will be lapping up all the behind-the-scenes details the film presents about this life, and its costs.
Early into the film, Tashi declares that when you’re playing tennis opposite someone, it’s not a battle — it’s a conversation, a connection. And that thesis bears out not just in the intense performances on the court, but in the way Guadagnino films these matches; the ball moves so fast sometimes it’s almost blinding, and sometimes that ball is shooting right up the camera lens. Sometimes the ball is the camera. Sometimes the players are the camera, too, thanks to some inventive Go-Pro usage.