Challengers

I’ve spent most of my life either playing or working in the world of tennis, so I was pretty excited to see a tennis movie on the big screen. Throw Zendaya into the mix? Yeah, I really wanted Challengers to be good.

After seeing it in theaters opening weekend, I can say that the film was a success. Although sometimes the soundtrack and camera angles were a bit too stylized for my taste (one shot had us looking up from the court’s perspective as a ball was bounced on us?) Challengers as a whole was pretty good. I thoroughly enjoyed using tennis’ three-set format as a structure to tell a non-linear story. Like a classic boxing movie, tennis is a sport that lends itself to good story about relationships. Although telling the story this way was fairly complex, the filmmakers pulled it off.

What shone the most, however, were the characters. Zendaya (Tashi Duncan), Josh O’Conner (Patrick Zweig), and Mike Faist (Art Donaldson) were each exceptional in their roles. Between their top-notch acting and a compelling script, the characters came to life and the relationships felt real. In particular, I was impressed with the the relationship between Patrick and Art. One of my favorite scenes was when Patrick visits Stanford and starts to chase his buddy around the tennis court. I’ve done that. It felt real.

So what did this movie have to say? Did any of the characters grow up or really even in change? Can relationships really emulate competitive sports, and how does achieving or failing our dreams affect the way in which we live out our lives? I’m not sure Challengers gives us any answers to these central questions, or even attempts to. And yet they are really fascinating questions that work to the film’s advantage in drawing the viewer in. There is no doubt these themes make for an entertaining and engaging film. I could go on about the characters and people I know that reminded me of them, as much as I could about which shots worked and which should have been left on the editing floor. I look forward to discussing which side of the love triangle others were rooting for, or what might have happened differently if Zendaya’s Tashi was able to stay healthy. It might not change the world, but Challengers is gonna get people talking. Also a bonus to see this in theaters– you could feel the tension, feel the crowd hold their breath as some of the more intimate scenes unfolded.

I’ve written a couple hundred words by this point because the film is artfully constructed but basically Challengers is this: tennis and sex. The movie is two people in a competition against each other, hitting a ball with a racquet, and three people in a competition with each other, professing their love and making out a whole bunch. The white lines of the court are blurred by passionate feelings and broken dreams, creating relationships defined by the battlefield of the match. Just like a real tennis match, Challengers is fun, fast, and not afraid to get intimate.

Lastly, I appreciated all the attention to tennis detail. From the rubber-band dampener in Patrick’s racquet to the real life Tennis Channel TV commentary to the Adidas slides worn by the Stanford tennis team in the cafeteria, the film captured the world of tennis beautifully. Even if some of the action was a bit off (or a lot off) in timing, this was as real a tennis movie as I think we’ll ever see. Maybe not Brad Gilbert in that wig, but otherwise it was pretty cool to see a world I recognize– again, tennis, not love triangles– captured so well on screen.