'Challengers' review: Prepare to get hot and bothered
“Challengers” is a bit of a tease. That’s what makes it fun.
There is plenty of skin, sweat, close-ups of muscly thighs and smoldering looks of lust and hate in this deliriously over-the-top psychodrama. But get that image of Josh O’Connor,Zendaya and Mike Faist sitting together on the bed out of your mind. Most of this action takes place on the tennis court.
It’s still a sexy tennis movie about friendship, love, competition and sport set to a synth-y score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross — it just might not contain exactly what you think it does. But remember, Luca Guadagnino is the one who filmed Timothée Chalamet with that peach, perhaps more memorable than any actual sex scene from the past decade. Manage expectations, but also trust.
And like “Call Me By Your Name” did for Chalamet, “Challengers” is one of those rare original big-screen delights that firmly announces the arrival of a new generation of movie stars. Zendaya and Faist already had a bit of a leg up. She has played significant supporting roles in some of the biggest movies of the past few years, from “Spider-Man” to “Dune,” and he had had his big cinematic breakthrough as Riff in Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story.” But it’s O’Connor who really comes out on top, effectively shedding any lingering image of him as a whiny, dweeby Prince Charles in seasons three and four of “The Crown.” In “Challengers,” his Patrick Zweig is the cocky, flirty, slightly mean, slightly dirty and slightly broken bad boyfriend of our fictional dreams.
Related articles
Britain's new bonkers EV: Callum Skye is an £80k electric buggy built in Warwickshire
Britain has a new sports car. But it's not like anything else you've seen on the road before.Callum,2024-05-22Macron sets Ukraine war as top priority as China's Xi Jinping arrives in France
PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron put trade disputes and Ukraine-related diplomatic effo2024-05-22US and Philippine forces stage combat drills near strategic channel off southern Taiwan
ITBAYAT, Philippines (AP) — U.S. Marines and their Filipino counterparts darted out of Black Hawk he2024-05-22How Rita Moreno uses honors like an upcoming public television award to further her philanthropy
NEW YORK (AP) — Rita Moreno says it was always in her nature to be generous – to hold doors for peop2024-05-22Cruise worker 'murders newborn son on board ship': Shocked co
A cruise worker on board an Italian ship 'murdered her newborn son' as horrified co-workers raised t2024-05-22Moyes leaving West Ham at the end of the season. Lopetegui linked as the replacement
LONDON (AP) — David Moyes will leave his role as West Ham manager when his contract expires at the e2024-05-22
atest comment