“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.
Both bodies found five days after kayaks capsized going over a dangerous dam in Indianapolis
Days Of Our Lives sees THREE old faces from the 1980s RETURN
Kim Kardashian credits North West, 10, for taking her sultry vacation pictures in Turks and Caicos
Shapiro aims to eliminate waiting list for services for intellectually disabled adults
How major US stock indexes fared Monday, 4/22/2024
Tori Spelling, 50, brags she has the 'lady parts of a 14
Chinese vice premier stresses timely delivery of homes to buyers
Caitlin Clark's Indiana Fever jersey becomes Fanatics' best
It's six today for birthday boy Louis, the prince of royal mischief
North Carolina sees slight surplus this year, $1B more next year
Man sentenced to 6 years in prison for attacking police with pole at Capitol
Rare bornean orangutan is born at Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida