CHALLENGERS Review: Not Challenging to Enjoy

What should I tell you about Challengers? Perhaps that it's not as much about tennis as you may think, and that it is also not as gay as you think.

Or that the performances were great, and the music by Trent Reznor really worked as a juxtaposition to dramatic scenes. That there was a lot off slow-mo.

It is a fun movie. Challengers, directed by Luca Guadagnino, is about three competitive tennis players who meet at a young age, and the way their paths diverge and converge over the years.

Pseudo-celebrity Tashi Duncan (Zendaya) has an injury early on in her career, instead becoming a coach, which suits her analytical and blunt personality. Close friends Art (Mike Faist) and Patrick (Josh O'Connor) are both competing for her affection as teenagers and over the course of the following years, often quite literally in tennis matches that could sway her decision. Art Donaldson makes it big. Patrick does not. Time bends often and the way to keep track of the life period is most often Zendaya's hair style, although there are written cues.

This goes without saying: They are all very pretty to look at. Again, the music is spectacular in this, providing a fresh and exciting beat to what could be a trite and melodramatic interaction.

It's a hot movie, what else can I say? Go watch it with your friends, who have probably heard about it already. Genre-wise, it's a good addition to the sports movie catalogue.

It did leave me wondering what one might make of the politics of this love triangle. What would this film look like it if were two women fighting over a man? Or if she wasn't so much the centre of it, giving how detached from emotions she seems (which is good, I believe, she lives and breaths tennis)? These are questions fro a movie that wasn't made, the one that was did not leave me with a harsh feminist critique or anything, just musings.

I recommend Challengers.

The film is now playing worldwide, only in theaters. Visit the official site for more information.