Review of Luca Guadagnino’s “Challengers” (2024)
As seen in my Letterboxd review, posted January 16th, 2026.
This review contains spoilers.
★★★★ 1/2
“We’re not talking about tennis, are we?”
No, this movie isn’t just about tennis. Tennis, while being the foundation of the movie, serves as a tangible representation of the tension and the landscape of the relationships. It is the driving force of each character’s actions, motivations, and dynamics with another.
The tension persists throughout, both in the negative, “I’m worried about where this will go/what they will do” way AND the sexual way. The chemistry between Faist and O’Connor was more intense than Zendaya with either of them honestly, which I think was part of the point. It’s not just a love triangle, but an interruption of a very intimate, close friendship (and more than a friendship, honestly, since their beds were already pushed together before Tashi was ever there). My point is, it is hard to not form something deeper than a friendship when you’re playing a sport you love with the person you know best.
It was always bound to fall apart, the groundwork was already there even before they went after Tashi. Like most homoerotic friendships at that age, that level of intensity could not have been sustained through any reasonable, healthy means, and with the combination of playing against each other, it was always going to end. I say this because they were both extremely ambitious but in incompatible ways, and they were willing to undermine each other the second any stakes were introduced into the game. They needed that competition and drive to survive, and they both had it in different, opposing ways for both tennis and Tashi.
Tashi was not a homewrecker, she was a catalyst; her entire dynamic with them was a tennis match in itself. She introduced the joy of the play that they both desperately needed. When Art went to college and Patrick continued competitively, there was a monotony in their bond that Tashi cured, almost. Like Patrick said, he liked seeing Art try to undermine their relationship, it reintroduced that thrill that had died when they stopped playing together. And that is what I mean when I say this film uses tennis to drive the relationships: it stopped being about tennis, but their relationships operate the same way the sport does.
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I truly don’t think any relationship in this movie works without the third. Patrick and Art needed that sense of competition, either in playing together or against each other, and they couldn’t play together forever — they needed Tashi to find that competition with one another again. In the same way, Tashi and Art needed Patrick to stay competitive, so Tashi could see that Art was still willing to give everything he had — without Patrick, she was always going to compare Art to herself and what she could’ve been. Tashi and Patrick also needed that thrill in the betrayal, because it once again was like tennis, a dance, for them. I guess what I’m saying is that unless these guys get into some polyamory, they were never going to last.
Each had the power in their turns to serve. Tashi choosing which guy to date, Patrick holding the ball at the centre of his racket, Art playing the long game consistently, Tashi holding their marriage over Art’s head and STILL cheating several times. The power dynamics are never equal and never completely favour one character, and I love that. It is so much more compelling to imagine that they all had their moments of power, rather than one of them simply pulling all of the strings. Art especially was fascinating because he was so much more…submissive? Less intense at the very least, compared to his counterparts. But in a way, that in itself is a strength. To quote Hamilton, he wasn’t sitting still, he was lying in wait. And that is proved after Patrick hints that him and Tashi slept together, because then Art goes absolutely insane. There is a mutual understanding between them in that moment that they needed to play REAL tennis and find that fire between them one more time; not for revenge, but to balance the scales.
Tashi is infuriating and so compelling as a character. Her ambition was drowning her, and the sad thing is that she more talent and ambition than Art OR Patrick. She could’ve been great, and her relationship with Art was never going to be lasting because she will always resent that it wasn’t her, I think. I didn’t like her a whole lot, but both boys always knew who she was. To expect her to be different, to care about anything more than she cared about tennis, would mean that they didn’t know her at all.
She is never going to forgive Art if he gives up, but I feel that she wishes that wasn’t the case. All Art wanted was for her to stay with him that night, and Tashi couldn’t even do that. Art was not FIRE for her, and she knew it, and she knew she was never going to be able to stay with him. But her coming home and finding Art with their daughter was HEARTBREAKING. In the same way she could never forgive him or love him completely, I don’t think she can forgive herself for getting injured, because it completely unravelled her sense of self and her ability to maintain a relationship. She could only be with someone who loved tennis as much as she did, but she also was doomed to resent whoever that would be because of her accident.
The best scene is undoubtedly the last one, when Art and Patrick rebuild their relationship/friendship just by playing. I loved watching the crowd become invested as the electricity of the game took shape, and you could see Tashi’s passion reignite too. Like she said at the beginning, that game was a relationship between them, and you could see both of them have FUN again. It was incredible, and the cinematography really leaned into how truly different that game was for both of them. The clear court/shots from underneath the net highlighted the dance of tennis, and the innovative use of the ball as the camera was the back-and-forth. Before that power play from Patrick with the position of the ball, the cinematography of that game was uninspired and tense, but this was playful and intense and electric. Guadagnino knew exactly how to portray the energy shifting, and he did it perfectly. I saw another review by Joe A say that tennis is an erotic sport BECAUSE of the lack of contact, and this scene amps that sentiment up 10000 times. It is also interesting that the lack of contact was broken in the end by the hug.
I am still trying to make sense of the hug at the end, but I believe that it was both Patrick and Art coming back to themselves, in some way. They had found once again what they both loved, and I think that they could not love tennis without each other. The sport is inherently tied to their friendship, and Tashi inadvertently lost both of them while trying to play for both teams. Patrick was right, Art was never going to forgive her for trying to rig the game in his favour. Coupled with her cheating on him, and they recreated that fire that kept them together for so long as kids through the competition. In some way, it broke the spell that Tashi had on both of them.
What I’m fascinated by is the basis of Art and Patrick’s attraction to Tashi. Patrick was pretty physical when it came to his attraction to her, he was talking about how sexy she was. He even said that he wasn’t referring to her playing tennis, but just SEEING her in person. In contrast, Art was fascinated and enthralled by her relationship with tennis specifically. The sport itself was the foundation of their relationship, which is why it was bound to fall apart. But then Patrick said “I’ve missed seeing you play”, which is contrary to his more immature attraction to her in the beginning. It shows how his relationship with tennis has shifted, the same way Art’s has. I wonder, though, if that passion that she had while playing tennis translated to her doing things she shouldn’t. Maybe “seeing her play” can refer to that fire she had when she played, which was applied to her affair with Patrick. If that’s the only way he can see a little of who she used to be before her injury, it makes sense that he said that.
Finally, I am obligated to mention the score. Challengers would not be Challengers without the tense techno music that brings every emotion and ambition to the forefront.
