CHALLENGERS|THERE'S NO LOVE IN TENNIS

Challengers is a 2024 American romantic sports film directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Justin Kuritzkes. The plot follows a professional tennis champion (Mike Faist) who plots a comeback with the help of his wife (Zendaya), a former tennis prodigy who retired after an injury, as he goes up against another player (Josh O'Connor), who also happens to be his former best friend and wife's former lover.

After being delayed from its initial September 2023 release date and pulled out from its slot as the opening film of the 80th Venice International Film Festival due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, Challengers premiered in Sydney, Australia, on March 26, 2024, and it was released in the United States by Amazon MGM Studios on April 26, 2024.

After watching this film, I have to say, I walked into the theater ready to give this film a 6 or even a 7, based solely on what I had heard and seen of the movie to that point, but this movie managed to exceed even the high expectations that I had for it.

It was a riveting character piece about an extremely close friendship between two men that manages to endure, through thick and thin, the better part of twenty years, with Zendaya's "Tashi" being the metaphorical tennis ball that the pair bat back and forth over the course of the film's two hour runtime.

The story's timeline does jump around a bit, so you definitely have to pay close attention. The tennis scenes look good, though I think the director got a little too cute towards the end, and speaking of the end, there are definitely some things that get left unresolved in this movie. Despite that fact, the film delivers a smart and earnest portrait of male friendship, in between sets, and it's definitely worth the price of the ticket.

"Challengers" is in theaters now.