Like there was any doubt. Zendaya has been on this exponential trajectory to superstardom since Euphoria. With Dune, and now with Challengers, we’re here. Zendaya is a bonafide movie star, commanding the screen in a messy, adult erotic thriller from the Call Me By Your Name director. She’s also now turned the tennis court into a place of lust and desire; in hindsight I guess all that grunting makes more sense now.
The movie opens at a US Open tennis qualifier. Nearing retirement tennis legend Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) is facing a flame out has been Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor) in the finals. But this isn’t just any matching Tashi Duncan (Zendaya) is sitting center court, nervous and excited as to what is going to happen. That’s because these three have been in and out of each other’s tennis lives for years now, with a complicated messy history putting a heap of extra stakes onto what was already an evenly matched duel.
This is how you resurrect the sports genre. Essentially if anyone wants to make a sports movie, you make the sport ancillary to the real story, and just weave it in when the story needs it. This movie is the adult cousin of Bull Durham, almost eerily so. Josh O’Conner’s Patrick is your Crash Davis type, oozing sexuality and charisma, which is making his deep seeded insecurity and unhappiness with his life choices; Challengers should make O’Connor a star, as he’s got the smile and style to make them good girls go bad. Faist is the Nuke opposite: an innocent uncertain person who needs someone to extract his potential out of him, but makes bad decisions under the guise of “being nice.” And trapped between them is Zendaya’s Annie. In both of these little white boys she sees parts of her personality: Art is the canvas where she molds her public life, and Patrick brings out all of her innermost desires and makes her come alive. I appreciate how sexy and emotionally messy each of these 3 actors play their parts, making me more than a little hot and bothered as I watched maybe the greatest tennis match I’ve ever seen.
But what makes Challengers really special is Luca Guadagnino’s direction and first time(!) screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes script. The script’s construction is excellent, starting the story at that New Rochelle Donaldson vs. Zweig final, and weaving in backstory to get us caught up to present day. And the brilliant Luca, pieces in a row, puts the puzzle together magnificently. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s score pulsates with momentum, elevating the audience heartbeats as they see the smokin hot starts sizzle onscreen. Luca’s biggest asset though is his understanding of the movie’s tone. Yes parts of this are very serious, adult and messy. But inside of that messiness is like 30% dark funny humor that when used correctly keeps the movie from becoming a slog. The location scouting is hilarious, with key scenes happening in scummy 2 star hotels or outside an Applebee’s. Big dramatic moments usually have a very silly punchline somewhere, like when Zendaya slaps a cigarette out of someone’s mouth. Luca builds us perfectly to that final set, where the two boys are playing their hearts out with Tashi frantically moving her head side to side, unsure who she’s actually rooting for, and without spoiling anything, finding the perfect ending to this movie that’s 70% exciting, 30% silly.
I mean it’s summer movie season, we gotta turn up the heat. Instead of superheroes creating explosions, Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, and Mike Faist will cause different types of explosions with Challengers, a near perfect starmaking old school erotic thriller that should delight adults of all types. One small note though Luca: is New Rochelle near a paper plant, because the windy days there stirred up I think, 9,824,295 pieces of paper for a pretty small town. I have some questions…