Directed by Luca Guadagnino, Challengers is a romantic sports drama film starring Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist. After being delayed from its initial September 2023 release due to the SAG-AFTRA strike, Challengers is now showing in cinemas worldwide.

Patrick Zweig and Art Donaldson were once best friends and promising future tennis stars. After winning a junior’s doubles championship together during their early adult years, they watch the grand final match of a women’s singles event and both fall head over heels for Tashi Duncan. After Tashi wins her championship, they meet up with her at a party later to get to know her better. Art and Patrick often find themselves at odds with each other over the years, with one having a successful career and married to Tashi, but is also on a losing streak, while the other is struggling to make ends meet, with tennis as his only form of income, all while Tashi is caught in the middle of it all as they still constantly compete for her affection.

The film centres around Zendaya as Tashi Duncan, Josh O’Connor as Patrick Zweig and Mike Faist as Art Donaldson focusing on the love triangle between them and their tennis careers. The story begins with Art and Partick facing off in a match, while Tashi watches from the audience and the movie does a lot of time jumping between different stages in their lives. It constantly shifts between the present day during Art and Patrick’s match, the days leading up to the match, a week before the match and their younger years.

The constant time jumps can get confusing trying to keep track of everything as the time jumps get closer to each other as the movie progresses, but they help explain certain elements of the story while also building tension between the three main characters. For example, Tashi and Art in the present day are married, raising a daughter together and have it good, with Art’s successful tennis career, despite his losing streak and making money off brand deals. Even though they seemingly have everything, they still don’t seem happy and the time jumps throughout the film help fill in the gaps. Even with some confusing parts, everything starts to connect as the movie works towards its climax. Audiences will constantly be anticipating to see what happens next.

The film does an excellent job showing how toxic the three main characters can be with each other. Zendaya’s portrayal of Tashi Duncan is someone who seems to enjoy playing mind games with Art and Patrick and can’t decide who she wants to be with more, even while married to one of them. When certain things happen in her life, she finds comfort in the one who’s there for her at the right place and at the right time, which of course makes the other one jealous. Not even a serious relationship or marriage will keep her from getting her needs fulfilled by the other guy.

Her relationship with either character shows how different she is from them as well. With Art, she isn’t just his wife in the present day, but also his tennis coach and manages all the brand deals. All that on top of his losing streak, Art is really feeling the pressure of being a husband, father, pro tennis player and a public figure. Mike Faist portrays a man struggling to find a clear direction in life, even thinking of putting his tennis career behind him, which complicates things more with Tashi. His younger self was more confident, and happy and had a great friendship with Patrick, but things began to change when Tashi came into their lives.

Josh O’Connor as Patrick Zweig portrays him as someone who was at his happiest just like Art, when the two competed as a team in doubles events. While Art went on to have a successful career and get the girl they both desired, Patrick wasn’t as lucky. With barely any money to buy food or even pay for a cheap hotel room, he resorts to sleeping in his car or even random Tinder hookups just to sleep in a proper bed. His main source of income is to win tennis matches and things become complicated when he’s matched up with his former best friend who’s married to someone he still has feelings for and they both know this.

The three main stars all do an excellent job portraying their characters on screen, with fantastic chemistry between them and all show plenty of character development. With the time jumps, they still portray the same characters during their younger years around 18 to 20, and when they’re around their late 20s or early 30s.

They look very convincing for whichever age they’re presented as, with different hairstyles, changes in their physical features and the way they act during different stages in their lives. Even the licensed music helps indicate what year they’re currently in. As mentioned above, the time jumps can get confusing as they get closer to each other towards the end of the film.

While the film’s main focus is on the toxic love triangle, it never forgets to make tennis a big part of it too. With former pro tennis player turned coach, Brad Gilbert on set, not only do the main stars look like seasoned tennis players, but they play like it too and this is also thanks to the amazing cinematography by Sayombhu Mukdeeprom. There is a wide variety of action shots illustrating the intensity of the game. The slow-motion scenes are done so meticulously, from seeing the ball in the air before it’s hit by a racket, sweat slowly dropping off faces, muscles tensing as they swing and so much more. Even scenes at normal speed show how fast and exciting tennis can be. There are even some action shots from the point of view of the players and on one occasion, the tennis ball itself.

Even during all the tennis action, it still tells the story of the three characters and what might be going on in their minds. Even little things seeing how infatuated Art and Patrick are watching Tashi play. While the rest of the audience is watching the ball being hit back and forth, Art and Mike mostly have their eyes on Tashi and barely look at the other player. Luca Guadagnino really shows his diverse range as a director with his resume including thrillers, romance, horror, crime, drama and more, sometimes even mixing them together flawlessly.

Challengers is a film that shows how toxic people can be in relationships. They’re not just competing for championships, but also for the affection of a girl and are willing to throw friendship away just to win her over, while she is often at odds with both of them and even herself. Audiences will be engaged from start to finish, as they witness events that may challenge even their own morals. Thirty love, dirty love, hitting balls and more, Challengers is anything but a typical romance film.

Written by: Sammy Hanson