Review: A Backhand as Foreplay
Luca Guadagnino’s “Challengers” is proof that gay people should be directing sports movies
The Yearning Rating: ✰✰✰✰ ½
Romance: ✰✰✰✰
Sex: ✰✰✰½
Storytelling: ✰✰✰✰
Performance: ✰✰✰✰✰
Yearning: ✰✰✰✰✰
Tickets are going fast for SPRING CLEANING, our latest IRL event! Get yours here <3
Some spoilers ahead!
Written by Meg Steinfeld-Heim
Hiiiii, Yearners. How was your spring break? While ours was most certainly wet and wild, it’s good to be back in your inboxes. And I gotta say, I’m happy to be coming back to talk about a movie that I can only describe as a very good time. This is me after watching Challengers: 😈. It’s seriously electric; a sharp, sexy, and modern sporty thriller. It really stands alone. It’s just so freakin’ fun and I need to get back into theaters to see it again ASAP. I think the movie has something to say and it feels really free from the pervasive, sanitizing cultural fear right now known as wanting-to-make-everyone-happy. But what is this movie saying? Among other things, that yearning is good for your game. The key to having game is wanting it bad enough. And this turns out to be a lesson not just in tennis, but in life.
Challengers centers around Tashi Duncan (Zendaya), a former tennis prodigy who suffered a career ending injury, and her efforts to coach her pro tennis player husband, Art Donaldson (Mike Faist), into clinching a career Grand Slam. He is just one US Open title away from doing so, but struggling to recover both physically and mentally from his own injury. In an effort to boost his confidence, Tashi enters him in a low-level Challenger event, and it is in this tournament that he comes up against someone with whom they both have a complicated history. Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor) is broke, sloppy and brazen—the total opposite of Tashi and Art’s polished, professional ethos. He’s also Art’s former best friend and Tashi’s former flame. And Challengers is dead-set on demonstrating to us just how much power that position affords Patrick.
The movie moves non-linearly, keeping you on the edge of your seat as it jumps back and forth years, weeks, months, and sometimes days to paint the full, twisted picture between the three people involved, all while it inches through each set of the long-awaited face off match. (An important aside: jumping around in time this much requires Challengers to use a lot of chyrons, which can be so annoying and can really take you out of a film—but these were quite effective and not-ugly. I would expect nothing less of Luca.) As the movie steadily builds in tension, it becomes patently clear how singularly important the outcome of this match is to both Art, Patrick, and Tashi. But okay, okay. Yes, it's about tennis and yes, I’m glad that someone is finally making a movie about how horny the sounds that tennis players make are. But’s lets talk about why this movie is gay!!
First of all, I want to just say—boys yearn too. The sheer amount of hormonal, high school longing in these flashbacks could power an automatic tennis ball machine. As high school tennis prodigies and besties, every one of Patrick and Arts’ initial interactions with Tashi involve them staring at her with a delicate, passionate hunger. Their wanton gazing could put the cast of even the most lesbian period piece to shame. A major reason they’re attracted to her is because of how incredible of a player she is; at one point while watching her in a match Art says in wonder, “Do you SEE her backhand?!” For Art, it was love at first serve.
Tennis makes the bisexual threesome world go round, and by that I mean, Tashi’s sexuality is equally tied to the sport. Challengers understands precisely what having talent so often leads to in the modern day—and that is to be consumed by it. Tashi is guilty of this, to the point that not talking tennis is ultimately a turn off for her. But in the moments that she is able to set aside her courtly fixations, another side of her is revealed: one that is power-hungry, cunning, and perceptive. In no time at all, she understands more about Art and Patrick’s friendship than they do. Challengers explores allowing all of the energy and drive that a professional sport requires to blur the lines of attraction and sexuality. All of this obsessive passion needs an outlet. And in response, every relationship in the movie—whether between two players, a player and a coach, or a player and the game itself—is exuberantly sexual.
The score? 30-Love (you for liking this post)
During a flashback to their college days, when Patrick and Tashi were together, one particularly impactful scene between Art and Patrick involves them eating churros (lol) together in a college cafeteria and discussing Patrick’s relationship. As Patrick realizes just how envious Art is, he doesn’t get mad…he almost seems turned on by it. The tension between the two of them is more sexual than anything else. He playfully teases Art about his jealousy and Art even takes a bite of Patrick’s churro ( 😈). Still, Patrick can’t resist mentioning that “this” is what is missing from Art’s tennis game. There’s that sex-drive-to-tennis pipeline again!
When Tashi finally accepts that there is no returning from her injury, she focuses her efforts on achieving her goals in whatever way possible—even if that means living vicariously through one or both of these men. As the movie progresses, we start to see that Tashi, sitting on the sidelines, may want the Grand Slam title (or what it signifies) more than anyone else on the court. And it’s ironic, because ultimately, it was the choice to pace herself—by going to college, instead of immediately going pro after high school—that resulted in the injury and the loss of the future she was destined for. And this forcing of her hand pushes the needle into chaotic territory. Zendaya does an amazing job contrasting pre-injury Tashi, who was confident, charming, and driven, with the drastically more intense post version of herself, who is disgusted by anything less than unabashed greatness. More than once, when making demands or bending people to her will, it is packaged within tennis advice. When asked, “Are we talking about tennis?” she reminds us, “We are always talking about tennis”.
Zendaya’s performance of Tashi is instilled with intrinsic, free-flowing power and intuition. As if she is always silently asking, do you want to be great, or are you just willing to be? While Patrick and Art duel both on and off court, Tashi is free to suss out this distinction between the two of them. Trust that she will take exactly what she wants.
As Art and Patrick drill into the final, game-ending set and the tension within this very-minor-league tennis match builds to near-comedic heights, Guadagnino’s directorial choices get zanier in response. This is a movie that should be watched on the big screen, if for no other reason than to fully experience what it's like to have the camera BE the tennis ball. The original score’s title track backs up these final moments with an echoing, thumping electronic beat that will not let up. As Art and Patrick communicate with each other in a language that only a decades-long friendship could create, their decorum turns petty and strategy is cast aside in favor of more…emotive…gameplay. They both pour buckets of glistening, gorgeous, slow motion dripping sweat. Spitting your gum into someone’s hand is to Challengers as, well, spitting is to Disobedience. The final scene—which is the primary evidence for my thesis statement about gay people directing sports movies—is all about the power of reconnecting through desire. And aren’t messy exes an integral part of the queer landscape?
Challengers is in theaters now.
Reminder to get your tickets for our next party, SPRING CLEANING! We’re hosting a free queer book swap and a screening of But I’m a Cheerleader with Sapph-Lit in Bushwick. It’ll be so fun!
OKAY IVE GOTTA SEE THIS MOVIE
love how the horniest movie i've seen in theaters in some time didn't even have a single actual sex scene. queer yearning baby!!!!!