Challengersthe review from the Vogue editors: we saw it in preview and this is what we think of it
The time has come: on Wednesday 24 April one of the most anticipated new releases at the cinema of 2024 arrives in theaters, namely Challengersthe new film directed by Luca Guadagnino with Zendaya starring as Tashi Duncan, a former tennis prodigy turned coach. A true force of nature, this girl doesn’t allow mistakes, both on and off the pitch. Married to a champion returning from a series of defeats (Mike Faist), Tashi’s strategy for her husband’s redemption takes a surprising turn when the latter has to face the now ruined Patrick in the field (Josh O’Connor), once his best friend and Tashi’s ex-boyfriend. As their past and present collide and tensions rise, Tashi will have to ask herself what the price of victory is.
With Challengers the visionary style of Luca Guadagnino is ready to captivate the spectators with his personal “Jules and Jim”: will he be able to win the game set? The public, as arbiter, will have the arduous ruling. In the meantime though Challengers It already has reviews from some Vogue editors who had the opportunity to preview it. Here’s what they thought about it below.
Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures
Tennis like love and vice versa
Whatever the reference game, we know that it will always be very easy to compare love to a game. Whether it’s a poker hand or a sports match, this type of metaphor has always offered filmmakers and authors the most colorful material from which to draw, including those who bet more, those who bet higher, those who have more experience. Who wins and inevitably who loses. It also happens in Challengers where the script is constructed just like a tennis match, bouncing back and forth in time asking us to rotate our heads left and right left and right like the audience during the film’s opening scene. A menage à trois between Patrick, Art and Tashi that draws from the tradition of all menage à trois (The dreamers? Yes. Jules & Jim? clearly. Three hearts by Benoit? what questions), combines it with homoerotic elements of which Guadagnino is a master and refreshes it by emptying it of any kind of compassion. For a film in which tennis is so dramatized that in this case, in reverse, it is easily comparable to love. Corinne Corci, Managing Editor & Special Projects Lead
A (sexy) drama for adults
Moment after moment, beat after beat, Challengers transmits sensuality between laughter, intrigue and resentment, with the authentic signature of Luca Guadagnino: the intensity is given in the close-ups and musical stabs. In addition to the talked about manage a trois, it is a drama for adults where sport is its parable, and Zandaya is the star. Selene Oliva, Affiliation Content Writer
