Tennis is the sport that comes closest to the classic duel. Separated by a net almost one meter high, the two parties fight each other without touching each other. In his new film “Challengers,” director Luca Guadagnino (“Call Me By Your Name”) expands on this duel concept and makes tennis the starting point of a competitive three-way relationship in which sport and love are inextricably linked.
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“Look at that backhand,” Patrick (Josh O’Connor) says to his friend Art (Mike Faist). Tashi (Zendaya) stands on the pitch and hits the ball into the opponent’s court with incredible power and precision. It is clear that their fascination is not only with the sporting talents.
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To her surprise, the goddess accepts the invitation to the hotel room after a party. Later she sits down on the edge of the bed, where the two of them sit on either side of her. A passionate make-out session begins in a triangle format, from which Tashi eventually withdraws while the young men continue kissing.
Satisfied, she looks at the result of her manipulative skills and announces as she leaves that the winner of the match in which Art and Patrick will compete against each other the next morning will get her phone number.
Patrick still has unfinished business with Art and Tashi
Thirteen years later, the two men face each other again on the tennis court. Art has now become a Grand Slam champion and is married to Tashi, who had to give up her tennis career after a serious knee injury. As an arts trainer, she has put all her sporting ambition into her husband’s career. At a tournament, the successful couple meets Patrick, who still has some unfinished business with them.
The match between the former friends forms the framework of “Challengers”. From here, Guadagnino uses flashbacks to expand on the sporting and emotional rollercoasters in the friendship and love triangle. While in youth the boundaries between friendship and love, homosexuality and heterosexuality, flirtation and intrigue, trust and betrayal were measured with playful ease, now it becomes bitterly serious.
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The Stream Team
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Ambition is the driving force that drives the dynamics of relationships and at the same time poisons them. Tennis has never looked so sexy in the cinema. Cameraman Sayombhu Mukdeeprom repeatedly takes close-up shots to capture the athletic physicality as well as the changing emotions on the faces. The outstanding acting trio withstands this gaze and develops the characters in a finely nuanced way.
Zendaya (“Dune”) in particular can once again demonstrate her charisma in a role that sweeps away all gender stereotypes and maintains her opaque ambivalence until the last second of the film.
“Challengers – Rivals”, directed by Luca Guadagnino, with Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, Mike Faist, 131 minutes, FSK 12