Luca Guadagnino is a very particular director, one of those who deviates from the established in Hollywood to succeed with completely different bets. His are movies that have reached the top in the industry like Call Me by Your Name or Suspiria. Just a few months ago, he released in theaters Challengers, a film starring Zendaya that grossed nearly 100 million dollars.
Challengers is about to arrive on the Amazon Prime Video streaming platform. On September 19th, it will be available for everyone with a subscription. But what makes Challengers such a special movie? Let’s see.
A story of tennis, passion, and rivalry
Challengers follows Tashi Duncan (Zendaya), a former tennis player turned coach who works tirelessly to bring her husband, Art (Mike Faist), to the top of the tennis world. Art, who had a promising career, has been struggling with a long streak of defeats and is in the twilight of his career. But when Tashi enters him in a lower-tier tournament to revitalize his competitive spirit, fate puts her husband face to face with Patrick (Josh O’Connor), his former best friend and Tashi’s ex-boyfriend.
This three-way tournament soon becomes something more emotional, quickly bringing to the surface old tensions, resentments, and passions among the tennis players. Soon, the dynamics between the three become something more, making the audience complicit and following a narrative similar to what Guadagnino has accustomed us to.
In short, it is a sports drama that hides much more behind it. A story of passion, desire, and expectations controlled by a director who has a great time thanks to a camera technique that very few filmmakers are able to carry out with such precision.
