A Review of Challengers: Produce Me Anytime, Zendaya:
I invented a way to find out if you should see this tennis film.
So Challengers is this movie co-produced by Zendaya, directed by Luca Guadagnino (an Italian director who directed Call Me By Your Name), and stars Mike Faist and Josh O'Connor. Everyone in this movie plays tennis, coaches tennis, or behaves AS tennis. You have to believe it to be the best at it. Challengers was a wild movie, and while I think it is probably worth your time, I had to invent a way for you to find out. You'll have to put yourself through my patented Love a Challenger Quiz to find out!
The Love a Challenger Quiz
Just answer the following questions to know if you’ll like this movie.
Do you like Tennis: Yes or No?
Do you like when people talk about sex as if it were tennis? Yes or No?
Do you like it when you can't tell the difference? Yes or No?
Do you like Zendaya: Yes or No?
I mean... do you like like Zendaya: Yes or No?
Do you like hot guys looking at the camera? Yes or No?
Do you like hot guys being all hot and sweaty while they're looking at the camera? Yes or No?
Do you like Zendaya being hot and sweaty while she's looking at the camera? Yes or No?
Do you like movies where people change over 13 or so years? Yes or No?
Do you like "The Devil's Threesome?" Yes or No?
Do you like movies where boys make out with each other? Yes or No?
Do you like it when wives cheat? Yes or No?
Do you like a little penis in your movies? Yes or No?
Do you feel men should challenge each other no matter what? Yes or No?
Do you like Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross movie scores and jam to sexy-ass 80's house sounds? Yes or no?
(The Devil's Threesome is described by DigitalCultures.com as - "the preferred phrase, by which hardcore Christians and conservatives are referring to a ménage a Trois, performed by two men and one woman.")
To find out if you should go and see Challengers, all you have to do is look at the “Yes’s” you circled. If you answered "Yes" five or more times, Challengers might be your kinda movie.
Challengers is a solid breakdown of how Tennis pros behave in college and beyond. As someone who got pelted with tennis balls one night as a child, I can vouch for the 135 mph serves and the accuracy playing tennis gives its players (thanks Joe…). Those little green-yellow balls are indestructible and hurt like hell when they hit you. So the way the film shows injuries on bodies from the past and in the moment can be a bit bloodcurdling. Personally, I like it when my blood bubbles a bit during a film.
Depending on how you did on my Love a Challenger Quiz you might find a little or a whole lot of enjoyment in this film. Luca Guadagnino has a way of depicting men that stays with you. He chooses a variety of angles to depict the ball motion and does a very good job of making us feel like we're in every tennis moment. The fame, the love, the hatred, the coaching, the struggle... tennis is a hard game mostly played by hard-ass nepo babies. Still, tennis is rather breathtaking when two of the best are matched up and giving it to each other.
Now... was I talking about tennis or sex?
Go watch Challengers to decide.
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