Challengers (2024)

3 Stars (out of 4)

Holding Court

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Luca Guadagnino's Challengers tells the story of two young male tennis players — Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) and Patrick Zweig (Josh O'Connor) — potential champs in the making, and their combative relationship with a beautiful female player, Tashi Donaldson (Zendaya), already on her way up. There's not much to the tale, as the boys are predictably opposites, Art blonde and straightforward, and Patrick dark-haired and full of bad-boy swagger. Tashi is predictably hard-headed and whip-smart, and when she sustains a career-ending injury, she predictably devotes her skills to one or the other of the boys. Guadagnino stretches it all out to an absurd length — 131 minutes — and caps it off with a WTF?!? ending. But his most bizarre choice was hiring the groundbreaking composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross and then having them do a headache-inducing techo-rave score that any third rate DJ could have slapped together. And yet Challengers moves with an impressive amount of skill. Its pacing, and especially its innovative cutting, jumping back and forth through time, make things seem constantly exciting. Plus, Zendaya is amazing. And, best of all, the film is something that most films today are too timid to be: sexy. The Blu-ray release by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment and MGM comes with a digital copy, but no extras, not even a trailer.