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- Jake Lipson
Zendaya was attached as star and producer before Luca Guadagnino came on board to direct. The head of MGM bought this as part of a two-picture deal with Guadagnino (Bones and All was the other.) So yes, Zendaya was playing Tashi before any studio was involved. I'm honestly not sure if the movie would have been made anywhere without Zendaya's involvement. With respect to Mike Faist and Josh O'Connor, Zendaya is clearly the one who is selling tickets here.
The last couple months have been really dry for me at the movies. The only thing I went to in March was repeat viewings of Dune, and Challengers was my only movie for April. (Yes, both feature Zendaya.) In lack of any other interesting new releases, I've been waiting for this one to arrive for a while.
I saw it tonight and really dug it, with some qualifications. First of all, a lot of the big scenes are in the trailer. This isn't the movie's fault but did rob it of some surprises. If you've been able to completely avoid the marketing, this won't be a problem for you. But I saw the trailer several times as far back as last year, before the movie's delay, and on multiple movies this year. So that did impact my experience.
The second thing I will say is that even if you took the trailer out of it, the nonlinear narrative provides the audience with information about certain plot points before they happen. As a single example, the film opens in its present day with Tashi married to a different character than she initially dates in the flashback portions. So we know a breakup will happen within the flashbacks before the movie shows us the circumstances. This structural choice has the effect of putting the audience's understanding ahead of the characters in many cases throughout the course of the movie. I really liked the movie a lot and I don't necessarily mean this as a complaint. But I think a commentary with Kuritzkes and Guadagnino for the eventual disc would be interesting because I would like to hear them explain the reasons for their structural choices.
All that being said, I really liked this. I think it is handily Guadagnino's best film that I have seen. Granted, that only puts it above A Bigger Splash and Call Me By Your Name because I haven't seen his entire filmography. But still.
Tashi is older than many of Zendaya's other characters and she has much more control over the situations In her life than MJ, Rue or even Chani. Chani is an adult, but she isn't in control in the way that Tashi is. It was interesting to see Zendaya play a different kind of character. I love Spider-Man and Euphoria and don't mean this as a diss to them at all. But Challengers provided an opportunity for Zendaya to show off an expanded range of talents because she hits beats here that those roles did not require of her. She absolutely rose to the occasion.
Tashi never reminded me of Zendaya's previous roles, and that's a good thing. Zendaya became Tashi fully for the duration of this running time. I'm very excited to see what this portends for her continuing career and hope she gets to play lots more different types of parts. She was really wonderful in this role. Faist and O'Conner were also very strong opposite her and each other. There are other peripheral characters, but it's basically the three of them. If the three actors hadn't clicked, I don't think the movie would have worked half as well. But fortunately, they do click and have great chemistry.
I also want to mention that this is the first thing I've seen by Justin Kuritzkes. Coincidentally, he was recently hired to write the screenplay adaptation of City On Fire by Don Winslow, which is one of my favorite recent novels. I had already decided to see Challengers before his hiring for City On Fire was announced, so that is a complete coincidence. But because he is going to be working on something I already love, I was especially glad to see that Challengers is so well-written. I'm very much looking forward to seeing what he does with City On Fire.
As I said before, I don't like tennis. I just don't get the appeal of watching somebody hit a ball with a racket. But I was able to invest in this movie because Tashi, Art and Patrick are well-drawn as characters. Also, holy moly, the final tennis scene was executed especially well and managed to be exciting despite my lack of interest in the sport. Even though it is a three-person. drama, the film felt very big to me. It was visually exciting and took advantage of the big screen in a way that it might not have in lesser hands. The movie will still be good at home if you want to wait. But if you are in a position to be able to go to a theater for it and are considering that, I do think the big screen would enhance your experience. It certainly did mine.
I think that's about as much as I can say right now without going into spoiler territory. But I would very highly recommend this. I came home and quickly pre-ordered the Blu-ray from Gruv.
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