Challengers (2024) Not she needed confirmation at this point, but this movie announces what we all know.....
......that Zendaya, the exotically stunning beauty with the most lean, sculpted body ever seen in films, is also one hell of a skilled actress.
Unquestionably, she's a bona fide, genuine movie star who dares you to take your eyes off her every time she's in front of a camera. And who'd want to take their eyes off her?
Her only competition for your eyeballs in this movie is the aggressive, dazzling visuals of director Luca Guadagnino.
Tennis matches abound here, but not like you've ever seen. Guadagnino employs frenetic, propulsive imagery to splash them across the screen......sometimes from the point of view of the tennis racket, sometimes, I kid you not, from the ball's point of view.
And all of it scored with perpetual thumping techno-disco to make sure your ears get pounded on as well......(more on that later)
But make no mistake, this film's most spectacular effect is the Zendaya-nator, playing Tashi, a teen tennis phenom with a lifetime of trophies ahead of her.
A ferocious, take-no-prisoners competitor, Tashi rips out a primal scream when faced with opponents who aren't playing up to her level and can't give her an equally matched game.
This drop dead gorgeous force-of-nature captivates two lesser players and lifelong tennis buddies Art (Mike Faist) and Patrick (Josh O' Connor). But the smitten friends naively think that one of them can win her heart.......not realizing that Tashi's only true loves are excelling and winning.
In the film's signature scene, Tashi slyly tempts the two clueless boys into a menage a trois, grinning to herself as she brings out their own denied homoerotic impulses for each other.
As the film's timelines bounce back and forth, we arrive at their current fates. Josh has become a broke tennis bum, sleeping in his car while he tries for prize money at a 'Challengers' match for novice players and pros down on their luck.
In that latter category is Art, a once champion pro hoping to come back from a losing streak. Tashi married him and for a time, they ruled tennis world together until a debilitating injury wiped out her career. Now coaching Art to a comeback is her only path to fueling her hunger for competitive victory, if only vicariously. And Art, worn out and longing for retirement, senses he'll lose Tashi if he can't give her the wins she thrives on, like blood for a vampire.
Dramatic fireworks detonate all through the film, but it does go on a little too long, coming too close to the point of tiresome repetition. Toward its final moments, director Guadagnino really overdoes the tennis P.O.V.-Techno-Disco enough to make an audience scream out 'enough already! Knock it off, we're beggin' ya!
Do hang on for the film's penultimate final shot of Zendaya though, which the actress and her director perfectly encapsulate the entire film in a matter of a few seconds. It's brilliant, funny, dramatic, perceptive......and the last word on how passion and competition are joined at the hip.....
And all hail the force-to-be-reckoned with Zendaya, joining BQ's list of our Favorite Movie Stars......4 stars (****).
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