‘Challengers’ Review: Zendaya and Company Smash the Sports-Movie Mold in Luca Guadagnino’s Tennis Scorcher
variety.comPeter Debruge Chief Film Critic Anyone who’s ever played tennis knows the game starts with love and escalates fast. In Luca Guadagnino’s hip, sexy and ridiculously overheated “Challengers,” the rivals are former doubles partners Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) and Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor), best friends since the age of 12, who went their separate ways after both players fell for the same woman.
Patrick got there first, but Art wound up marrying her — and their sense of competition has only intensified since. As bunkmates at the same tennis academy, the guys must have heard this old groaner: What do you call a girl who stands between two players on a tennis court? (The answer is almost too dumb to dignify, and yet: Annette.) In Guadagnino’s erotic drama, Zendaya plays the gal in that position, seated at precisely the midpoint between Art and Patrick in their big match.
The camera doesn’t turn, but her head does, swiveling with each shot. This is Tashi Duncan, a teenage tennis prodigy turned professional coach.
More than a decade earlier, the two adversaries competed for her number. Now it feels like they’re playing for her heart. Like that clunky joke, the plot of “Challengers” might sound stale, and yet, there’s an electric spark to Guadagnino’s approach that elevates the material, rendering it fresh.
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