Film Journal 2024: Challengers

Film Journal 2024: Challengers
Directed by Luca Guadagnino

This is a bit of an assumption on my part, since I’ve only seen it once, but one of the biggest take aways from my initial viewing of Challengers is it definitely lingers as an experience and grows the more I think about the film, suggesting that this is bound to reward rewatches. More to the point, I find myself thinking about the film quite a bit.

Much or what I find myself thinking about are the technical elements. The film has such a feverish and pointed progression to its madness that some of its unique flourishes end up flying by without notice. The way it films the tennis matches, for example, shifting from different perspectives in order to keep us off balance. The film is far more cinematic than I expected as a whole. The way the film structures its story by jumping back and forth in time. The way the soundtrack and score leads different scenes.

The film is equally interesting on a dramatic front, with far more going on than first meets the eye. It’s balancing a three way power struggle, playing with who is the underdog and who has the power as the relational dynamics get more developed and entrenched. What’s clear is the film uses the tennis match as an allegory for the relational dynamics. What might be less obvious is the way these two things become an allegory for society and humanity at large. Here it hits close to home, daring us to confront the notion that this is, in fact, how life itself works.

And then there is simply the act of experiencing the film in the moment. The final 20 minutes or so are especially next level filmmaking. The intensity it manages to evoke, all of it earned, will have you leaning forward in your seats, and the way it lands its ending is nearly pitch perfect.