As the star of the superhero blockbuster declines, could this truly be the year that big, grown-up films return to cinemas? 2024 has already gifted us sci-fi spectacle in Dune: Part Two and the politically-charged actioner Civil War. Now, with Luca Guadagnino’s terrific Challengers, the acclaimed director of Call Me By Your Name brings us the sub-genre we never knew we needed: the erotic tennis thriller.
Two young guns of the tennis world, young Art (Mike Faist) and Patrick (Josh O’Connor) meet Tashi (Zendaya), a quickly-rising star. Their shared desire for her kicks off a decade-long rivalry and a love triangle that will bind them all together for the next thirteen years.
In mainstream blockbuster terms, Guadagnino’s filmography up to this point has been fairly low key, respected as an arthouse director with mainstream appeal. Of his recent work, his best known English-language film remains Call Me By Your Name; his remake of Suspiria is interesting if a touch uninspiring, while 2022’s Gothic Romance Bones and All is terrific but was never going to set the box office on fire. Yet, Challengers, with an aggressive marketing campaign that centres on rising mega-star Zendaya and the love triangle atop which she commands co-stars Faist and O’Connor has all but assured Challengers‘ box office dynamite. The promise of big stars, big performances and sex: it’s like the 90s all over again.
The irony, of course, is that Challengers is a film dripping with implied sex but with nary a whisper of the real thing. The much-vaunted threesome scene, heavily trailed by the aforementioned marketing, turns out to be one of the film’s biggest gags, while virtually all of the sexual tension derives from the rivalry / barely-concealed desire between Art and Patrick. In fact, one could almost describe Guadagnino’s film as an anti-erotic thriller. Its ambivalent relationship with sex is both its triumph and its most frustrating shortcoming.
There is a sense throughout, as there are with many of the director’s films, of holding back, both erotically but also aesthetically. Guadagnino often alludes to earlier suspense directors like Hitchcock, particularly through a lovely recurring musical piano motif, but much of the imagery here is too much thought and not enough felt. There is also a clear debt to Basic Instinct and other erotic thrillers of that era, but where Verhoeven embraces sex in its gaudy, even tacky splendour, Guadagnino attempts to tease with foreplay, but it’s a tease that is often to cerebral. The impression, like a late shot from underneath the tennis court is often impressive but emotionally cold, more akin to watching an advert than a film.
That is not to say what is on screen is neither accomplished nor compelling; it is both. As a thriller, Challengers is a terrific ride, bouncing between time periods to reveal layers of character and narrative, while Guadagnino pulls out every trick in his considerable wheelhouse to make what should be a rather uncinematic sport very exciting. And at the centre is Zendaya with a powerhouse performance. Terrifying, profoundly desirable, and singular, in a different film she would be labelled a femme fatale, but here she is written and plays it too complex for such a trope. More to the point, her power derives not from her desire for sex or money, but her single-minded obsession with tennis.
It’s here where the film’s strange relationship with sex makes sense: the sport itself is the real act. Challengers is, in the end, a fantastically well constructed film with a star-making performance at its centre. Not quite a masterpiece, Guadagnino holds back from fully embracing the potential of his film’s eroticism and style, but Challengers is nevertheless a worthy contender.
Christopher Machell