Challengers is a lot of things, but at the end of the day, it’s entertaining and a great cinematic experience.
Challengers (2024) is a heck of a movie. It does so much right but gets a few critical things wrong. There are points in the movie where I feel like it could’ve been a near-stellar film, but other times, I was frustrated with some character development. Challengers (2024) lives and breathes life into its three characters. Beyond those characters, there are no side characters of importance. The whole film is about them all and their interactions.
It puts an extreme weight on the three actors and actresses in the film. And most of the time, they handle that flawlessly. This is one of those movies where I’d be surprised if there wasn’t any Academy recognition for the acting.
I gotta say I gotta praise the music in Challengers (2024). This might be one of my favorite scores for a film in a long time. I’m a big fan of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, who did the music. I love Nine Inch Nails, which is their band, but the music they did for Challengers (2024) was phenomenal. It elevated the movie. It set the tone for every scene it was in.
The music was a character of its own and just as important as any other element of the movie. I think if this kind of music were not in the film, it would’ve been a completely different movie and not as good.
The music is electronic and techno-driven. It may not float some people’s boat because of how abrasive it is used in Challengers (2024), but it has a unique tone that you don’t see in every movie. Not all films can pull off loud electronic music during a conversation between two people in a room. It seems so out of place, but it works so well that I can’t explain it.
It’s one of those things you have to see to believe. If you enjoyed Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s score on some of David Fincher’s films, such as The Social Network, Gone Girl, or The Killer, you’ll enjoy their music use in Challengers (2024).
Speaking of David Fincher, this movie operates like a David Fincher movie. Think of a movie like Gone Girl that cuts between different years relatively quickly throughout the film. Instead of seeing the story in the correct order of events in which they occurred, we are seeing them cut back and forth between the present and the past. Of course, this is due to pacing, as it keeps the audience on its toes.
If they had shown the events in the correct order of when they happened, it might’ve been a little bit slower of a movie. It would’ve been cool to have a cut of the movie that had all of the scenes in the correct order of when they happened. Maybe that’s something they could do on a director’s cut or something like that. Seeing as the whole movie is leading to one sports event, it would build it up in such an insane way. Throughout the film, we see random inserts of this finale. It will be cool to see the finale put together all in one instead of sliced to bits.
As I said before, the characters carry Challengers (2024). The casting was as good as it could get. All the actors got in shape to play real tennis players, and they even practiced with real professional tennis players. There isn’t a lot of time in the film where I don’t doubt that these characters are being misplayed. The acting was pretty awesome, so I hope that someone gets nominated for something.
But the characters are also one of my major gripes with Challengers (2024). I have a hard time rooting for either of the main leads in the film. The film is about two best friends fighting over a girl off and on throughout the years; they both date her at some point. They were tennis partners and best friends, but are now distant and playing tennis on their own instead of together as a team.
Art, who is played by Mike Faist, ends up marrying Tashi, who is played by Zendaya. She was a tennis protégé but ended up getting injured and becoming Art’s coach instead. Then Art’s friend, Patrick, played by Josh O’Connor, is in the dust. Art becomes a tennis champion and a household name in the tennis world. Patrick ends up barely making enough money to get by with his tennis skills.
The film culminates in a final match between the former two best friends at a tennis event. It seems she was the one who set this up, knowing it would bring out the best in both of them, and she would watch a good tennis match because of it.
There’s a lot more to that, but the film breaks it down in a great way, so I don’t want to spoil anything more. We go deep into the relationships, how they interact over the years, and what ultimately breaks apart the two best friends. But what I don’t like about this is that our two main boys are not necessarily likable.
Of course, Challengers (2024) is super entertaining, and whatnot, but near the end of the film, I kind of didn’t care as much about their match together as far as who wins. I don’t know if we were supposed to. Our two boys are extremely selfish and shallow people. I’m sure that is kind of the point of the movie.
One of the characters even admits to knowing that he’s “a piece of shit”. But I always find it hard to watch movies when I don’t like the main characters and don’t care what happens to them. Like I said, I was thoroughly entertained, and this movie does just about everything else right. The costume design, the music, and the editing—it’s all top-tier. I just have a hard time with these scummy people, in my opinion. They aren’t murderers or anything like that, but they are pretty easy to see through. It might also be that I know people like them in my life.
Challengers (2024) is pretty high in its sexual nature, as it’s very erotic. That might turn a couple of people who are looking for a good sports drama. But in today’s day and age, it’s something that we’ve come to see more of.
Challengers (2024) is directed by Luca Guadagnino. Luca directed Call Me By Your Name and the Suspiria remake. This film feels a lot like Call Me By Your Name, with a lot of its erotic nature and the way the story is told. So if you’re a fan of any of his films, Challengers (2024) is one of the better ones he has made. It’s the most entertaining of all his movies.
Challengers (2024) is chaotic and crazy, but fun and awesome at the end of the day. If you like the plot of this film and it sounds interesting, you’ll enjoy the movie, but know that it’s going to be pretty chaotic, crazy, and have a good amount of erotic nature in it. It might turn off some of the older audiences in those aspects, but it’s a stellar film that’s worth watching for any movie fan who can handle all that.
