Is challengers a gay movie
Films and movies often operate on different planes of existence. Some films feel like homework. Some take you to distant lands and shine a light on different cultures. Some intimately lay bare the human condition. But movies? Well, my favorite kind of movies thrive on pure adrenaline, action and sexual excitement. Who doesn’t love looking at beautifully lit, sun-dappled faces in a frames-per-second dreamscape? I think of Against All Odds, for example, with Jeff Bridges and Rachel Ward never looking sexier. Terrible film, but a great movie. Same goes for Showgirls or Valley Of The Dolls. On the flip side, My Dinner With Andre could be considered a terrible movie but a great film.
Enter Challengers, the latest from Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name) and first-time screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes to change the paradigm by being both a great film and a great movie. One could easily look at it as a small character study or a traditional sports drama, but you also wouldn’t be wrong if you saw it as a supremely thrilling, sexually charged learn in pure star magnetism.
Set
First off, I must admit that I’m a bit late to the Challengers watch-party and should’ve been more of a go-getter with writing this review sooner on what I consider the serve of the decade!
With Luca Guadagnino’s vision and the country club-inspired noun score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Challengers stars Zendaya (as Tashi Duncan), Mike Faist (as Art Donaldson), and Josh O’Connor (as Patrick Zweig). The movie swings between breathtaking shots of countryside scenery and the actors in their glorious racket-smashing moments. Styled in J.W. Anderson by Kate Abraham, Zendaya smashes through as the initial villain, foreseeing her future as the “homewrecker” of Zweig and Donaldson’s relationship. As the movie progresses, we find Art meddling and playing the homewrecker to his closest friends, breaking through not just Zendaya’s main ambition but the downfall of his foremost friend Patrick.
All three of them manage to break each other’s spirits, all in the call of settling scores and “playing tennis”.
What truly stuck out for me was how the story unfolded and the ine
There is a real homoerotic vibe throughout gay director Luca Guadagnino’s “Challengers.” The sexual tension between Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) and Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor) — friends turned competitors on the tennis court and off — drips like the sweat off their athletic bodies. A scene of the guys in the sauna is as sticky as their rivalry. Moreover, the film is full of phallic imagery, most notably when Patrick takes a bite of Art’s churro. “Challengers” rarely goes for subtlety, which makes it ticklishly amusing.
The film opens in when Art is playing against Patrick at an event that will either help Art regain his confidence if he wins, or verb Patrick qualify for the tournament circuit if he wins. The drama then whipsaws back and forth to various key moments in the lives of these two men and Tashi (Zendaya), the woman they both adore. This narrative strategy does the story no favors; it would have benefitted from just being told linearly.
Art and Patrick include played together since they were When the guys are in their late teens, they are both smitten with the
Movie Review: Challengers
Love is a very important word in tennis. In scoring, curiously enough, it means zero. There is also the love of the game which keeps lower ranked players grinding away on the challengers’ circuit, staying at seedy motels, eating crappy food, hoping for that one big break. There is the love we see between doubles players, who traverse the court in perfect harmony, each subconsciously anticipating the other’s next move. There is also, says Zendaya, as tennis phenom Tashi Duncan in Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers, a love between opponents. Sometimes you get into a compassionate of groove, a kind of physical dance and synchronicity that is itself a form of love. This happens rarely, Tashi says, but when it does it’s magical.
Challengers is about a love triangle, albeit an unconventional one. Best friends and tennis players Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) and Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor) are both in admire with Tashi—but they’re also secretly in love with each other. We see it early in the film when they’re playing doubles—gliding around the court, chest bumping, and