Some Thoughts on Challengers (and the Rise of Zendaya)

Is tennis sexy?

WARNING: This post contains mild spoilers for Challengers but nothing plot-specific.

I saw Challengers over the weekend with a friend, and I really enjoyed it. I’m not a hardcore Luca Guadagnino fan. I respected his remake of Suspiria and enjoyed Call Me By Your Name but I’ve never been as enraptured by him as many of my Film Twitter comrades are. The talent is evident but whenever I reached out my hands for something tangible, it felt like smoke going through my fingers. There’s a lot about Challengers that doesn’t work, but as an adult-driven drama that is primarily concerned with desire, I found it to be a worthwhile endeavour. Also, it’s hot as f*ck.

In Challengers, a trio of tennis players spend the best part of 15 years obsessing over one another and threatening to tear themselves apart over their infatuations. Tashi (Zendaya) is the young prodigy whose college injury ends her career before it’s even begun. Art and Patrick (Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor) are childhood best friends who are both enamoured with her from a young age. One dates her but the other marries her. Tashi coaches Art into stardom but post-injury jitters have him on a losing streak. Patrick is a low-ranked and barely pro player who lives out of his car as he goes from tournament to tournament to earn a living. Of course they end up playing one another in the final, which is how the film opens.

Subtext is for cowards through Guadagnino’s camera, which flits from face to face then bounces across the court during the intense match at the centre of the narrative. In Challengers, everyone is thinking about two things: winning and f*cking. Everything is a game where there is a victor and a loser, and you’ll do anything not to be the latter. Tennis is sex and sex is everything and therein lies, if not salvation then at least the possibility of contentment. Phallic imagery is everywhere, so shamelessly focused on that you can practically hear Luca giggling off-camera. Because none of this trio is happy or even close to satisfied. No amount of victories, on the court or otherwise, seems to satiate the hunger they’ve had, not since their threesome kiss as teens that ended prematurely when Tashi proved her point.

The internet delves into the “sex scenes in movies” discourse every few weeks or so, and it’s always tedious to me, a critic who thinks cinema should be able to explore every facet of humanity and occasionally just make us horny. I’m baffled by this prevailing notion among the puritans that modern-day entertainment is inescapably concerned with perversions. If only! As one oft-shared article noted, in modern cinema, everyone is beautiful and nobody f*cks. I could go on and get into my exceedingly long thesis on the de-sexing of modern art, but to stay on topic, just the idea of seeing a major mainstream film that is almost exclusively about desire was exciting. Challengers shows how sex is and can be relevant to a narrative. It has thematic resonance, but it’s also just viscerally pleasurable. Everyone looks gorgeous (holy cow, Mike Faist?!) Every gaze is one of ravenous hunger. The Trent Reznor-Atticus Ross synth and bass-heavy score is pure f*ck music (fitting for the guy who made “Closer.”) I’ve seen reviews ding it for style over substance, which I can’t entirely deny, but when your story is so stridently focused on a group of single-minded obsessives who care exclusively about victory, it makes sense.

While all three leads are excellent, this is inarguably Zendaya’s movie. It’s, surprisingly, her first leading role in any feature, and she knocks it out of the park. Anyone who has doubted her ability to translate that red carpet charisma to on-screen skill will be thoroughly refuted here. Tashi is, unfortunately, the least developed of the trio, which is the main problem with Challengers overall, but Zendaya teases out the inner turmoil and resentment of someone who was meant to have more in life than be a retired player who coaches her husband from the sidelines. Tashi is used to being impeccably composed, wearing the highest heels as if to let the world know her busted knee doesn’t control her. Her steeliness is on show when she watches Art play, but also when she must placate his insecurities that still aggravate her. She quietly asserts her power at every opportunity, whether it’s ensuring an ad featuring she and Art names them both as “game changers” or leaving Patrick mid-makeout to do some yoga. Zendaya is an extremely confident performer, which makes her ideal for Tashi, but it’s those micro-expressions of vulnerability and unsureness where she reminds you of how good she is.

I’m hardly the first person to note that Zendaya is a brilliant celebrity. Some people are just incredibly good at being famous and she’s one of them. She might be the best current example in her age group. Having started as a Disney Channel girl, her ascent to the top of the Hollywood pile has seemed incredibly swift and smooth from the outside. But the labour of it all is also evident and expertly executed. Who else has utilized fashion as a means of promotion as thrillingly as Zendaya? I’ve already written about this for Pajiba so I won’t repeat myself too much. Watching Zendaya on a red carpet is truly exciting. She takes big swings, commits to themes, and always seems like she’s having a total ball with these lavish Looks.

She recently gave an interview to British Vogue (complete with Law Roach styled photoshoot) and was remarkably candid about how much of life she’s missed out on because of being the family breadwinner from a young age. She also confessed that years of high pressure labour as a celebrity has left her struggling to appreciate her current success. "Now, when I have these moments in my career – like, my first time leading a film that’s actually going to be in a theatre – I feel like I shrink, and I can’t enjoy all the things that are happening to me," she said, before adding, "And I wish I went to school." Child stardom is inherently malicious, a deliberate exploitation of a demographic unable to truly consent to what’s happening, and the system has no interest in ensuring the long-term security of those it commodifies then discards. We’ve weirdly accepted this idea of the “child star curse”, thus allowing everyone to deny culpability in this cruelty because it’s written in the stars or something. So, I can’t help but feel relief whenever a former child actor or singer grows up, is happy and well-adjusted, and isn’t reduced to a public joke so that we can continue the abuse. It happens far too often, even now (hell, especially now in the era of influencers, family vloggers, and the almighty algorithm.)

Zendaya has navigated treacherous waters for most of her life. She made the leap from Disney to reality TV to Hollywood. She dealt with racism and misogyny, often on a national level, as happened when Giuliana Rancic said her dreadlocks looked as though they smelled of “patchouli oil and weed” on Fashion Police. She put in the time in less-than-stellar roles, usually in supporting parts where she was given little to do. She survived angry racist comic book bros when she was cast as MJ in the new Spider-Man series. She maintains a strict private life with her also very famous boyfriend. In interviews, she is charming and approachable but keeps a healthy distance. That she’s made it all seem easy while simultaneously opening up about the difficult cost of such a life is further testament of her uniqueness in this industry.

She seems primed to navigate this next phase of her career, that of a true movie star whose name can get a project greenlit. In that Vogue interview, much of which she spends talking to the one and only Serena Williams, she talks about wanting "more mentors and community and people around." There’s certainly a weight on her shoulders as a young Black woman with over-the-title clout in a business where progress for women of colour seems to have all but ground to a halt. A lot of Euphoria stars are staking out their claims for the A-List, and they all have strong credentials, but I think it’s Zendaya who embodies the full package and seems most destined to go the distance. Certainly, if it means more things like Challengers, I’m all onboard.

Thanks for reading. In case you missed it, the latest issue of the Gossip Reading Club is live and it’s on a VERY creepy interview with American Apparel founder Dov Charney.

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