Luca Guadagnino (“Bones and All”) is likely the busiest man in Hollywood. In this decade alone, he has produced or directed five feature films with four others on the docket. The Italian workhorse has also written and directed an overlooked mini-series — “We Are Who We Are” — and even has an untitled show in the works. All this to say, Guadagnino is on a creative kick, although many of his efforts fail to live up to the popularity (and frankly, quality) of “Call Me by Your Name.” With “Challengers,” Guadagnino may be breaking through to stardom in a big way.
“Challengers” opens with a gorgeous slow-motion sequence of extreme close-ups: A drenched Art Donaldson (Mike Faist, “West Side Story”) jumps in the air, swinging a tennis racket; an exhausted Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor, “EMMA.”) squints at Donaldson through the blistering sun; an anxious Tashi Donaldson (Zendaya, “Dune”) follows the action, uncertain of the future — just as the audience is uncertain of what to expect. It’s a short, silent scene: a purely visual appetizer for the forthcoming maximalism. After the overture, Guadagnino wastes no time laying down the film’s modus operandi: showy, sweaty and sexy filmmaking. In the following scene, Donaldson and Zweig are simply playing the first set of their tennis match, but the film treats this moment as anything but a calm opening set. The camerawork is punkish, almost rabid, like a rat in a cage. Cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom (“Suspiria”) pulls out all the stops to cover every angle of the match: panning left, tracking right, tilting down, shooting overhead, punching in, zooming out. All the while, composers Trent Reznor (“The Social Network”) and Atticus Ross (“The Social Network”) blast booming synthwave, like they’re scoring a club scene for a Nicholas Winding Refn (“Drive”) film.
The scene is outrageously fun, even a bit unhinged. In the hands of any lesser director, “Challengers” could have easily gotten carried away, committing the cardinal sin of “style over substance.” Guadagnino, though, is far too seasoned for that mistake. In the midst of squeaking sneakers and erotic grunting, he develops the main plot with a volley of well-traded glances. The three leads speak without words; their eyes tell tales of lust, longing and desperation. They clearly have history. The truth is, they all love and need each other, but no one wants to admit it. At its core, “Challengers” is about a forbidden love triangle, one in which each person tries to hide their longing for one another, whether it’s through blind dedication, cordial sportsmanship or feigned apathy.
Tashi Donaldson embodies the latter as a steely-eyed femme fatale. Her cold demeanor is more akin to chainmail than skin, more like a performance than reality. Zendaya magnificently portrays the character’s hardness, yet behind that firm and frosty voice, she manages to create the distinct impression of dissatisfaction and vulnerability — for good reason. After an injury that ends Tashi’s tennis career, what is left for a professional athlete to do? Naturally, (in Guadagnino’s universe, anyway) Tashi begins using her “feminine wiles” to regain the control that misfortune took. For the most part, it seems to have worked: She has a lap dog for a husband in Art and a horndog for the occasional lay in Patrick. Her life is a balanced serving of sterility and passion, but she can’t have both at the same time, so she’s still not satisfied. It is in this pursuit of achieving both where things go slightly awry, where her two dogs run loose and where Guadagnino has the most fun deviating from convention.
“Challengers” is a non-linear narrative, hopping between timelines from when the trio were prodigies to young professionals to jaded veterans of the sport and God-knows-what in between. Guadagnino even jumps back and forth within these timelines — the week before or the midnight of — almost on a whim. It’s a testament to the trio’s acting chops that each stage feels distinct from one another. Faist and O’Connor seamlessly de-age through mannerisms alone, and Zendaya sneakily disguises Tashi’s controlling nature as teenage mischief. But it’s an even bigger testament to Guadagnino’s vision that the resulting film is coherent and emotionally satisfying. When Tashi’s life begins to turn, these timelines collide, fleshing each other out. Art, who initially comes across as a pushover, develops into a willing submissive — perhaps to fill a void in himself and the marriage — creating a complex journey we follow through flashbacks and flashforwards. Similarly, a simple line like “I’ll leave you” gets recontextualized three times — as tragic, bittersweet then funny — purely as a result of the film’s structure. Each scene placement, however spontaneous, illuminates the previous scene and expands on a moment that happened 20 minutes prior, all while setting up a resolution that’s coming in the next ten minutes.
That said, “Challengers” isn’t balls-to-the-wall complex all the time. Despite the film’s relentless flamboyance and undeniable sex appeal, Guadagnino knows when to pull back the reins. It’s in the calm moments — in a dingy hotel, in a foul locker room, inside of a beat-up car, between the swirling camera and the electrifying synths — that Guadagnino shows his class. The three leads deeply inhabit their surroundings, and Guadagnino trusts them to command the space, to pause on an emotion and take it in. O’Connor specifically becomes one with this eccentric world, breathing life into his role as a smug horndog and relaying with a sly, rebellious smirk what a thousand words could never. With a pregnant pause, we get the impression that Patrick knows how to ignite a fire in Art, Tashi and likely himself; it’s just a matter of patience and persistence. When “Challengers” scrambles timelines, the quiet and evocative moments contribute to the film’s narrative thrust, giving agency to the two men and casting doubt on the control that Tashi has over them.
It beautifully coalesces by the end. If “tennis is a relationship,” then Tashi, Art and Patrick are in a rocky one. They all need something that only the game and the tension of being together provides. The three of them apart is like tennis without a net, or a racket, or a ball: It’s a different sport. The tennis court sets the stage for the unpredictable woes of their passion, and you’re in the bleachers, tracking the ball left and right. But are you watching closely enough? Are you nervous, panting in anticipation? Do you feel the heat of their bodies transfer onto yours? Do you feel the sweat stick to your skin and weigh down your shirt?
At its most riveting, you’re not just watching a woman puppeteer two men. You’re deep in the crowd. You’re sweating and cheering for all three of them. You’re watching Guadagnino serve an ace. Game, set and match.
Daily Arts Writer Ben Luu can be reached at benllv@umich.edu.