Challengers

Challenger starring the wonderfully talented Zendaya is in theaters, and I highly recommend going to see it! The movie also stars Mike Faist and Josh O'Connor who play tennis phenoms who also happens to be best friends. The pair meet Zendaya's character at a tennis tournament and thus begins a long and steamy love triangle between the two. Challengers was directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Justin Kuritzkes and this serves as Kuritzkes' feature film debut. 

Now, you may think that this is "just another sports movie," but in actuality, it is much more of a steamy romance that involves sports. I would equate it to how the tv series Ted Lasso is more of a comedy/drama series disguised as a sports show than just a show about futbol. My rating for this movie is a 9.1/10 and I think the thing about the movie that pushes it past an 8 for me is how engaging the movie is. Specifically, I loved the fact that I had no idea what was going to happen at the end of the movie. Unlike most sports movies that are true stories, so we already know the outcome, this was a fictional story which led me to be on the edge of my seat as every serve. One critique that I have for the movie is that toward the end, director Guadagnino got a little experimental with his shots. Specifically, there is one shot where we actually see the movie from the tennis ball's point of view. This was pretty cool besides the almost instant motion sickness that resulted. 

Challengers is a truly awesome movie. It is steamy and exciting, and I think you will have a really fun time if you watch it. 

Thanks for reading!