FILM: Challengers

Challengers, directed by Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name, among others), makes tennis look sexier than ever. Zendaya plays a fierce up-and-coming tennis star, Tashi Duncan, who ends up in a complicated relationship with two other young tennis stars Patrick (Josh O’Connor) and Art (Mike Faist). The two guys have come from prep schools and backgrounds of privilege, while she has definitely not, and has had to work hard for everything she has. “Tennis is a relationship,” Tashi says early in the film, and the game at its highest level of competition is inextricably intertwined in the relationships of these three, with the two guys, closest of friends, also competing for Tashi. It all takes some interesting twists and turns, with a riveting final match with so much riding on it. The strong performances are underscored by great sound engineering, where the effort of every swing and the impact of every contact of racket with ball are visceral with layers of emotion.