Challengers (2024) Dir: Luca Guadagino
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Much was made of Luca Guadagino tennis-centred romance when it cam out earlier this year. Many people seemed to love it, while others pointed out its misleading marketing and shortcomings. I decided to wait, and watch the film in the future instead. When that time came, I was more interested, than any other emotion, to see what I'd make of it.
The soundtrack kind of served as a metaphor for how I felt about the film, to be honest. It had some excellent song choices, and I really liked the sound of the film, but it was too repetitive and predictably used. Usually, I don't mind a repeated theme, but the one in this film just got so dull and irksome to me.
There was some inventive cinematography throughout the film. I'd go so far as to call it my favourite feature. Most notably, there was some very satisfying uses of the match cut, as well as some very unusual, but enjoyable, pov shots, both from the character's perspectives and even the balls perspective at one point.
The narrative played out like one long tennis match, with plenty of literal and metaphorical back-and-forths. To that end, I liked how a lot of it played out. My issue was that it felt like it went on and on and on. It was too long, or at least it felt that way. I also wasn't a fan of the ending; it was abrupt and unsatisfying.
Furthermore, while I did like the shift in power dynamics between the characters, I didn't actually like the characters all that much, which took away from my enjoyment somewhat. The performances from the three leads were each very good, but their characters were unlikeable.
Zendaya gave yet another power house performance. When she delivers, she tends to do so in abundance, and that was certainly the case here. Her biggest strength, as it often is with her acting, was her exemplary and telling facial expressions, which do so much storytelling work for the audience.
Mike Faist won me over with his second half performance, which was brilliant. I wasn't so convinced by some of his earlier scenes - I think that was mainly because the other two were just a little better than he was though. I should emphasise that his performance, on the whole, was very good though.
Josh O'Connor had a lot of charisma, which served him extremely well throughout the film. He had so much swagger, and really owned some of the scenes he was in. I do think Zendaya was better, and Faist during his best scenes, but O'Connor was definitely very good.
Overall, while I enjoyed a lot of the individual pieces of this film, I don't think my holistic perspective is one of total satisfaction. I found myself underwhelmed or disappointed by certain elements, chiefly the pacing. The film drags so much at points - there's very little momentum. I will credit the individual performances from the main three though - all were exceptionally good.
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