If you are looking for the movie of the year, look no further. “Challengers,” directed by Luca Guadagnino, was released on April 22, 2024, and immediately took over the box office. I’m serious when I say this movie is going to win awards. I was joined by Louisa Billingsley, Sophia Kitz, and Julia Scotti to see this experience of a movie and we all agreed we would see it ten times over.
Challengers is centered around a 2014 tennis match between former best friends Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) and Patrick Zweng (Josh O’Connor), fire and ice if you will. Tashi Donaldson, formerly Duncan, played by actress Zendaya, is the coach of her husband Art after a severe injury. Throughout the movie, we get various flashbacks of when Art and Patrick were best friends and competing for the attention of Tashi Duncan, a tennis superstar at the Junior Olympics. You see the characters throughout the years and in the days leading up to this fateful Phil’s Tiretown Tennis tournament where all of the tension built up for the last 13 years comes to a head.
Overall, the plot of this movie is absolutely insane. The relationships built between Art, Patrick, and Tashi each have such different dynamics and it makes this movie so intriguing. The theory is that Patrick loves Art, Art loves Tashi and Tashi only loves tennis. This makes everyone’s actions and feelings more prominent. The movie is also so playful with its use of tennis as a metaphor for their love, careers, pasts, and futures. The idea of the challenger between Patrick and Art carries such importance with these metaphors as well as they have been competing not only against one another but for Tashi for the last 13 years. The soundtrack in this movie is phenomenal as well. It had such variety from strut-worthy songs to lovesick heartbreak songs.
The movie exhibits such a deep impact on the emotions and passion of the audience due to Tashi’s behavior. She was so manipulative towards both Patrick and Art that it was painful to watch her attack both but in different ways. However, I will say, that nobody knows how to play an extremely manipulative woman the way Zendaya does. Her poise and confidence with every line delivery make you hang on to every word she says. She exhibits sociopathic behaviors which made me want to hate her but I couldn’t bring myself to.
This movie will seriously leave your jaw on the floor. From the behaviors of Tashi to the relationship between Art and Patrick slowly deteriorating, this movie has every dynamic you could wish for. If you have yet to see it, you are absolutely missing out.
