Tashi, a former tennis prodigy turned coach, turned her husband into a champion. But to overcome a losing streak, he needs to face his ex-best friend and Tashi’s ex-boyfriend.

Luca Guadagnino’s latest film is a fair departure from his previous works, with ‘Challengers’ diving into the world of pro Tennis to tell a story about three aspiring superstars as their professional and romantic lives intertwine over a 15 year or so period. It stars Zendaya as Tashi Duncan, a promising young Tennis prospect in the earlier years, turned coach in the present after her playing career was cut short by an awful injury. Vying for her attention are school and college best friends Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) and Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor), with their tennis encounters almost doubling as duels to impress and win Tashi’s affections. Over the course of the different timelines the dynamics between these characters will change, and I was gripped in following how ‘Challengers’ played out.

This is a frenetic movie to watch, between the kinetic editing approach that jumps between different timelines as well as different points of a key tennis match in the present between Art and Patrick. Add to this the pounding score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, and the sex appeal that is literally dripping off the screen and it makes for an intense viewing experience. It isn’t something you can say often but this is a genuinely sexy movie, and by that I mean sexy, not sleazy, in that the characters are attractive and even as much of the ‘action’ takes place off screen, the insinuation works even better than showing it could have done. I liked that your thoughts on the characters regularly shifts as you learn more about them, and I felt Guadagnino gets the balance right in terms of time spent in each period of time.

If I had a criticism, it’d be in the final act, which stretches out the pivotal tennis match to an unnecessarily long degree before finishing fairly abruptly, but I did like how it paid off on things that happened earlier in the movie. A lot of that is done through visual cues and its testament to the strong character work and the performances that you’re fully in tune with who these people are and what motivates them as they play out their passions and resentments on the tennis court. The best sports movies are ones where you don’t even need to like the sport to enjoy it, and while I do like tennis, I think ‘Challengers’ absolutely fits that bill and I had a blast watching it.

Rating: 4/5

Directed By: Luca Guadagnino

Starring: Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt16426418/