Challengers
Challengers is the freakiest movie of 2024. If I'm being honest this movie could go down as the freakiest sports movie of all time. Now I will say to start this review if you’ve seen the trailer you’ve basically seen the whole movie. Not because they put all the best parts in the trailer. More so because they kind of recycle the same patterns throughout the film.
This film stars Tashi Duncan an ultra-competitive tennis phenom. Played by the one and only Zendaya. She is also the center of a “love” triangle between two promising tennis prospects. Art Donaldson played by Mike Faist and Patrick Zweig played by Josh O'Connor. The duo had grown up competing with and against each other at one of the top boarding schools. Suffice it to say, they all had game.
Tennis wasn’t the only game being played though. This movie is super messy in all the best ways for a romance flick. The trio leaves no stone unturned in the world of toxic romance. You can expect everything from lying to cheating and manipulation. Plus there is even your occasional Dirty Mack here and there. Granted you can chalk a lot of this up to them being young and dumb but at a certain point you gotta call a spade a spade.
What I like about this movie though is that they humanize each character or in this case athlete. There is no real “good guy or girl” in this situation. By the end of the movie, I didn’t like any of them if I’m being honest.
Despite all that I’m happy to say that Challengers is just as much a tennis movie as it is a romance flick. Sports like tennis are as much a mental game as it is a physical one. Through each character, we get to see both of those things manifest on and off the court. Especially with Tashi, it showed that they are more than just athletes.
Zendaya really got to flex her chops with this role cause not only was it an active role being a tennis movie. But she also got to tap into this super-competitive energy. Almost kindred to a Serena Williams type of vibe. Some would even call it infectious. On top of that, this movie is labeled as the "sexiest" movie of the year by some publications. It speaks to her range as an actress and producer. She is the box office draw for this film and this is a huge step in her career.
In closing this movie was full of moments. The cinematography and visual effects were fire. I never thought tennis could look like that and you can tell a lot of care went into creating this film. They were able to tell a compelling story while keeping the integrity of the game at the forefront. That among everything I said prior is why I have to give Challengers a 9/10 G-Files Score. Granted they dragged the final game a little too long it led to one of my favorite callbacks in recent history.
