Luca Guadagnino’s new film Challengers was slated to premiere last September, after a premiere at the Venice Film Festival. However, in wake of the SAG/WGA strikes, it was moved to the April 2024 release date where it currently lives. I would say the film has an uphill battle at the awards circuit with an April release date, however I don’t think anyone’s going to forget (or stop talking about) this film any time soon. I was predisposed to enjoy this film anyway because Luca Guadagnino has yet to miss for me, and Call Me By Your Name remains something of an all-time favorite film for me. However, Challengers might be his true masterpiece.

Tashi Duncan (Zendaya) is an 18-year old tennis phenom with the entire world in front of her. She becomes involved with Patrick (Josh O’Connor) and Art (Mike Faist), two best friends and fellow promising tennis players who take an interest in her. We jump back and forth between a match that puts Patrick and Art against each other years after everyone has gone their separate ways, presented alongside important flashbacks from crucial points in this relationship, where we have seductions, betrayals, triumphs and tragedies that have formed this somewhat codependent relationship and the people Tashi, Art and Patrick have become.

Challengers is a sports drama and also a black comedy and also an erotic thriller about three very unhappy people whose lives are seemingly forever intertwined and are constantly at odds fighting to be the winner. It’s sexy, mean, sweaty and marvelous. It’s about the concept of the winner and can that person ever truly be happy if they have to sacrifice the important relationships in their life. It’s a love triangle where all of the lines touch and where each line is equally important. It’s a character study where the true drama in the story comes from the more you learn about everyone and what’s expressed in wordless moments.  And the ending sequence is one for the record books.

Challengers is obviously a showcase for the undefeated Zendaya who fulfills every bit of promise shown in her earlier projects and gives the audience something she never has before. She is electric in every moment here, even as her motivations and morality become increasingly murky. She does so much with a glance or a nod of her head, and rarely loses her cool. The more we learn about her and what’s driving this character to take the actions she’s taking. Does she really care about either of the guys fighting for her affection or her admiration or her respect? It’s debatable. She wants to be the best in her game, and at a certain point, she can’t be anymore, and that’s where things really get interesting.

I have been a fan of Mike Faist since his Broadway days. I once met him at the Dear Evan Hansen stage door and he seemingly operates with the same kind of infectious charisma in his daily life that he does on the stage and screen. And I was really hoping he would break out as a screen actor in a big way after his supporting turn in Spielberg’s West Side Story remake a few years ago, and regrettably not much came from that. He is awarded another spellbinding turn here. He has such screen presence in both versions of this character that we meet, and I think this film could do big things for his career moving forward. He, like Zendaya and O’Connor, feel like they could be silent movie actors. There is so much being expressed in this movie through expressions and sideways glances and the bubbling desire and escalating anger you can see on an actor’s face. 

I’m also a big Josh O’Connor fan, mainly for his standout role in the buzzy indie God’s Own Country a few years ago. But since then, O’Connor has had a few chances to show off his range that are finally starting to pay off. After a few featured supporting roles in Emma., and The Crown, and most recently the underseen La Chimera, O’Connor seems poised for his big break, and he is also impossible to take you eyes off of in Challengers. His Patrick is introduced early on as the one in this trio that has never quite found his groove in the world of professional tennis, and is on a search for redemption. However, the more we learn about Patrick, it becomes less clear what his endgame is, and what (or who) he’s wanted all along. And O’Connor makes a delicious meal out of this fascinating character.

Challengers has Luca Guadagnino’s signature style all over it – his usual DP Sayombhu Mukdeeprom shot this. The camerawork is so specific and so enthralling and at certain points toes the line of feeling like Mukdeeprom is just showing off, but by the time we get there you’ll be so invested in this story, you’ll hardly notice. The tennis matches are filmed in a way that makes this viewer who does not care at all about sports, want to reconsider that. The blazing, pulsating quasi-techno score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross also toes the line of occasionally feeling like maaaaybe a little too much, but it never feels inorganic and never takes away from anything going on onscreen.

Guadagnino directed this from first-time screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes’ script, and he immediately emerges as a screenwriter worth paying very close attention to. The intricacies of these characters are so specific, every finely drawn detail is captivating from the minute we get going until the explosive, near-wordless finale. A film like this cannot ride on style or performances alone, and Kuritzkes’ script keeps you wondering where this is going to go, and I could never quite call it correctly. The structure of this story is also inventive and meticulously executed. We start off when these characters are in their early 30s, and their dreams are largely behind them. Then, throughout the story we flash back to important moments over the past 13 years of their relationship, and each flashback is important and tells you so much about who these people are. It’s also a feat that we never are confused about where or when we are in this story, and the unusual structure adds to, rather than detracts from everything around it. Kuritzkes will re-team with Guadagnino on his next film, an adaptation of the William S. Burroughs novel Queer, and that’s a project I’m suddenly very excited about.

It’s not often we see films like Challengers in American cinema anymore – at least not the kind that get a wide theatrical release, and aren’t relegated to arthouse cinema or (gulp) streaming only films. We need more mid-budget dramas for adults. Because, when they are done this well, it can remind one why they love going to the movies in the first place. Challengers is a grippingly intense, palpably sexy, shockingly funny and endlessly captivating good time. See it on the biggest screen you can find with the best sound system imaginable. Don’t watch this one at home on your TV. It’s easily the best film I have seen so far in 2024.