«Challengers» - Movie Review by Kinoafisha
Tennis as sex in a new painting by Luca Guadagnino.
The best friends, tennis players Art and Patrick, come to the competition to the very young star Tasha. The girl is still preparing for university, but already has an advertising contract with adidas and the prospect of becoming a legend of tennis. For the first time, but not the last time, the camera will focus on the views of its characters. The player will twist their necks in the desire to keep up with the ball, the faces of the main characters will always be directed towards one player who is disturbing the heart at the moment. So Art and Patrick are watching Tashi with a dropped jaw, either admiring the impeccable technique, or waiting for her short skirt to fly a little higher. One object of desire does not interfere with the friendship of guys who are used to doing everything together. Together, they call for you to come to their room. To their surprise, the girl appears on the doorstep and immediately demonstrates her competitive spirit not only on the court, but also in bed, forcing the guys to do what she wants.
The first evening together is the most intense sex scene, where the characters do not even take off their clothes. The high degree of eroticism stated in the trailer does not turn out to be a cause for concern for Tom Holland. For the "challengers", sex in bed is not as interesting as sex on the court. The eroticism of open bodies and furious screams at matches is accompanied by unrestrained techno from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, members of the rock band Nine Inch Nails, mixed by the German electronic artist Boys Noize. Their music has a truly hallucinatory effect, which makes you want to either attack your partner or go in for sports.
Under the sudden leaps of music, the picture jumps back and forth in time, covering 13 years of the characters' lives. Tasha and Art already have a daughter (not the fact that from him), who does not seem to see her father point-blank. The relationship with Patrick did not just come to naught, but went into a deep minus. Tashi was seriously injured and devoted her life to training her husband, who doesn't really need sports, and doesn't need anything at all. Young guys from the dating scene instantly transform into thirty-year-olds who have already seen life, perfectly conveying the burden of the years they have lived. What happened between the characters is a completely uncomplicated story about throwing the ball from different ends of the court. Sometimes real, but more often metaphorical — Tashi. Zendaya, which was supposed to become the center of attraction for both the characters and the entire narrative, does not actually turn out to be one. The whole force of the project is concentrated in the pumped-up hands and the snide grin of Patrick, the Briton Josh O'Connor. The marriage of two of his close friends should have taken him out of the equation, but the man continues to remind himself of himself, treating them with kind irony.
The story of the love triangle was written by Justin Kuritzkis, the husband of Celine Song, who presented one of the best films of 2023, "Past Lives." The romantic relationships of the three characters in the Song were permeated with bright sadness and endless tenderness. In the biographical work, Son writes off the image of the third wheel from her husband Justin. Justin, on the other hand, creates a completely different interpretation of such relationships, imbuing them with acerbity and sarcasm, probably associating himself with O'Connor's hero. It remains to be hoped that the third person in the Son–Kuritzkis relationship was also not deprived of writing talent and gave his reading.
Kuritzkis prescribes each scene so that it adds more and more layers to the characters' images and their stories. The camera of Sayombhu Mukdiprom, the operator of "Call me by your Name" and "Suspiria", plays along with his every decision. Kuritzkis is fixated on metaphors of relationships, Guadagnino is interested in sensuality and does not care about tennis at all, Mukdiprom is only interested in tennis.
It would seem that the cards are laid on the table in such a way that it is impossible to lose. However, the abrupt editing negates many of the film's strengths. In Gaspard Noe's "Ecstasy", the music rolled in a destructive wave in a sexual orgy, twisting the viewer into an unrestrained dance of montage. Pursuing this energy, the "challengers" do not allow us to spill out onto the court with the same fascination. If tennis is a relationship, as it is repeated many times in the film, then the relationship of the "Contenders" has problems with potency: the accelerating rhythm stops abruptly every time. As a result, the most beautiful foot shots from under a transparent court or a dizzying flight from the point of view of the ball look like an expensive commercial, and not a rhythmically embedded part of the work.
In this picture there is a sea of excitement, physicality, causing hunger. After each swing of the racket, the "challengers" shout about the overwhelming desire for victory, but their energy fails to break through the fourth wall. Perhaps in his next work, "Queer", the director will continue to enjoy long plans of sunny countries, and will transfer his colleagues in the film to Gaspard Noe for use.
