CHALLENGERS - Tennis Being Played on Multiple Levels
How "Challengers" explores relationships through the framework of tennis
*Does include minor spoilers and mature subject matter*
This week, I was able to see the new Luca Guadagnino film Challengers, starring Zendaya, Mike Faist, and Josh O’Connor. The film is a tense pyscho-sexual drama with a love triangle at the center of the plot. Art Donaldson (Mike Fiast), a world-class tennis player nearing the end of his career, is seeking to capture his first US Open to secure the career Grand Slam. After a disappointing beginning to the season, his wife and former tennis prodigy, Tashi Duncan (Zendaya), enters Art into a Challenger event ahead of the US Open in hopes of restoring his confidence. However, once Art reaches the Challenger final, he finds his former best friend and Tashi’s ex-boyfriend, Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Conner), standing across the net.
Pacing is the first element of Challengers’ storytelling that jumped out to me. There are two aspects of the films pacing that allow Guadagnino to accomplish a transcendent rhythm throughout the runtime. First, he utilizes time jumps. The beginning of the film shows the Challenger final immediately and without context. This means that the rest of the film is dedicated to providing context to this match. Jumping back and forth into the past and the present allows for tension to live in every frame. At moments, you can can even get lost in what specific time period we are currently in. However, there are convenient title cards and physical indicators, such as wardrobe choices, to point the audience in the right direction, so that the jumps do not serve as a distraction rather than an effective tool for storytelling.
Second, the score. Often times, the job of a films score is to indicate to the audience the pacing of the film. Quality directors and musicians will manipulate the audience with the score, forcing them into a feeling subconsciously as a scene plays out. However, in Challengers, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross only know one speed in their score to match the adrenaline-filled pace: GO. The two have been delivering killer scores for over a decade at this point, and Challengers is another addition into their top-notch discography. Their work on this film felt like an LCD Soundsystem meets The Social Network combined with elements of Pink Floyd’s On the Run from Dark Side of the Moon. The entire score is intoxicating and perfectly matches the extremely stylistic filmmaking Guadagnino brings to the table. A+, hands down my favorite part of the film, LISTEN TO THE FANTASTIC SCORE HERE!
The next element of the film I would like to discuss is the very clear metaphor of tennis that works to outline each and every interaction/scene in the film. Yes, this is a literal tennis movie and it is 100% a “sports” film, but it is a mere framework for the real match taking place between Art and Patrick. Art and Patrick from the very conception of the film are in awe of Tashi, to a hilarious degree at times. They’re in agreement with each other that they both want to spend time with her, date her, have sex with her, and fall in love with her. There is no “unspoken” understanding, it is clear. Art wants her, Patrick wants her, and Tashi wants to play both sides.
I am not going to get into the “morality” of the character’s desires, they are all flawed, but that is not the point of the film for me. The point is to have fun watching these matches. Who has the upper hand and at what point? Is Tashi always in control as she thinks she is? Maybe she is with Art, but what about with Patrick? Does Patrick truly match her at times as he says, or is it just something he says out-loud to deal with his insecurities about his deeply intense feelings for Tashi, outside of his lust for sex?
These are the aspects of the film that thrive. It is really fun to see Art and Patrick volley back and forth, especially when the attempted manipulation is so clear to the both of them. For example, there is a scene in which Patrick and Art have an excellent back and forth about Tashi at Stanford. Patrick at the time is Tashi’s boyfriend, visiting her during his time off from the pro tennis scene. Before seeing Tashi, Patrick spends time with Art, as the two sit down for a quick churro (not so subtle) in the lunch hall before Patrick meets Tashi in her dorm.
Art is trying his best to pry Tashi out of Patrick’s hands, but Patrick knows this. The two are face to face, playing their own respective “games.” Art deals in the defensive, he suggests to Patrick that Tashi does not feel a certain way about him and allows Patrick to conjure up his own ideas of what he means. While Patrick deals in the offensive. He has a swagger about his responses, he likes the competition, acknowledging it directly to Art as Art denies it. The scene is a masterful insight into the two different archetypes of masculinity found in relationships. One passive style, waiting for the opportune moment to strike. The other, assertive and full of confidence. Two different ways of playing tennis.
Overall, Guadagnino is interested in winning, and how three different people view what it means to win. To Patrick, winning is having Tashi by his side, even if it means giving up a piece of his “masculinity” as he edges closer to worship rather than a mutual respect between himself and Tashi.
For Patrick, winning means a successful emotion manipulation of both Art and Tashi. He wants Art to feel his presence at all times, and he wants Tashi to come crawling back to him when she feels like Art isn’t man enough for her. He does not want to be at Tashi’s mercy as Art is, but he certainly wants her more than his is willing to admit to either Art or Tashi.
Tashi, who I unfortunately have not discussed at length, sees winning in the dominate sort of fashion. As a player, she wants to eviscerate her opponents. Dismantling their weaknesses and proving to be a worthy champion amidst a back and forth that she deems to be beautiful. She also wants a worthy champion in her personal life. She wants, in the end, for Art and Patrick to compete. To put their insecurities aside and fight, tooth and nail, for her and for tennis. This explains her outburst near the end of the film.
And at the end of the film, we come to understand that the pattern between the three main characters will never end. When we cut to black, there is no resolution beyond the understanding of what makes each character tick. Because of this, we do not need an ending wrapped up in a bow. It is pure adrenaline at the end of film, we experience what the characters are always striving to feel: intense competition, love, and lust.