Challengers is love, obsession and competition. Luca Guadagnino gets this right from the first serve. The camera work, art design and choreography add up to a film that genuinely feels like tennis. Dynamic. Intimate. Gritty. Moving.
Challengers is, underneath it all, a film about ambition. About what happens when you can't tell desire and competition apart. Tashi doesn't love Art or Patrick. She loves winning. Art and Patrick don't love Tashi. They love what she reflects back at them.
Tashi: You’re not a tennis player. You don’t know what tennis is.
Patrick: What is it?
Tashi: It’s a relationship.
Art's clean, controlled game and Patrick's chaotic, instinctive game tell you exactly who these men are before a word of dialogue confirms it. Challengers uses the camera, music and editing to make you feel the relationships. Jump cuts reminiscent of memory flashbacks and a back-and-forth narrative that mirrors the way tennis is actually played.
Stellar art direction with an absolute banger of a soundtrack.