--- title: Challengers Belongs to Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist description: Luca Guadagnino's sexy tennis drama dispenses with the taboo around acknowledging the sensual appeal of athletes. canonical: https://time.com/6971016/challengers-review/ author: Stephanie Zacharek article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-04-26T15:13:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:52:26.334Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Zendaya Is a Powerhouse, But Challengers Belongs to Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist og:description: Luca Guadagnino's sexy tennis drama dispenses with the taboo around acknowledging the sensual appeal of athletes. og:url: https://time.com/6971016/challengers-review/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt95447bdc4748d08b/698a5609db2987673b26b95e/TIRE_TOWN_STILLS_PULL_230607_002_RC_rgb.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: CHALLENGERS (2023) og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Zendaya Is a Powerhouse, But Challengers Belongs to Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist twitter:description: Luca Guadagnino's sexy tennis drama dispenses with the taboo around acknowledging the sensual appeal of athletes. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt95447bdc4748d08b/698a5609db2987673b26b95e/TIRE_TOWN_STILLS_PULL_230607_002_RC_rgb.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Zendaya Is a Powerhouse, But _Challengers_ Belongs to Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Stephanie Zacharek](https://time.com/author/stephanie-zacharek/)  ## Stephanie Zacharek Film Critic Apr 26, 2024 3:13 PM UTC  Mike Faist as Art, Zendaya as Tashi and Josh O'Connor as Patrick in Challengers Mike Faist as Art, Zendaya as Tashi and Josh O'Connor as Patrick in ChallengersCourtest of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures  by [Stephanie Zacharek](https://time.com/author/stephanie-zacharek/)  ## Stephanie Zacharek Film Critic Apr 26, 2024 3:13 PM UTC The strapping grandeur of Myron’s Discobolus notwithstanding, it’s weirdly taboo to acknowledge the sensual appeal of athletes. Somehow we’re not supposed to notice the sassy-tight buns of football players in their tiny stretch pants, or the easy bedroom drawl of a basketball player's limbs. The message seems to be, Sports are serious business! Leave the ogling out of it. But [Luca Guadagnino](https://time.com/6210765/bones-and-all-review/) is here with a benediction in the form of _Challengers,_ a movie that urges us to ogle and sigh and laugh to our heart’s content. There are three major players in this love-triangle fantasia that’s partly about tennis but even more about love and obsession, with dashes of _Les Liaisons Dangereuses_ tossed in. First there’s Mike Faist’s tennis pro and almost-champ Art Donaldson, a guy on a losing streak, his confidence leaking away by the minute. Then there's Art's wife, [Zendaya’s](https://time.com/collection/100-most-influential-people-2022/6177806/zendaya/) Tashi Donaldson, a driven young woman who’d been headed for pro glory before a serious injury sidelined her for good; now she lives vicariously as Art’s coach. And last but hardly least is [Josh O’Connor’s](https://time.com/6961659/la-chimera-review/) Patrick Zweig, a onetime tennis hopeful who’s gone to seed. He also happens to be Art’s former best friend, and Tashi’s ex-boyfriend, and there’s some part of his brain that can’t let either of them go. How does Guadagnino map the relationship between these three, and how does he bring their story to a satisfying, leap-of-joy close? His mode of storytelling doesn’t resemble anything you’d call a straight line; even calling it _nonlinear_ fails to capture its kangaroo energy. It’s better described as a series of springy volleys backward and forward through time—the movie ping-pongs between 2019 and 2006, with stops in between—that leave you feeling a little dizzy, even a bit punch-drunk. **Read more:** [_The 100 Best Movies of the Past 10 Decades_](https://time.com/collection/100-best-movies/)  Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor Courtesy of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Working from a script by Justin Kuritzkes, Guadagnino takes pleasure in teasing us, toying with us, getting us all turned around. This is his most buoyant movie. [Guadagningo can be a wonderful director](https://time.com/5042707/call-me-by-your-name-shape-of-water-fearlessly-display-love/): His 2009 _I Am Love,_ starring [Tilda Swinton](https://time.com/6333811/the-killer-netflix-tilda-swinton/) as an Italian aristocrat’s wife who yields to forbidden desire, is a blissful swoon of a movie. He’s also guilty of taking himself too seriously: His 2018 [_Suspiria_](https://time.com/5384890/suspiria-review/) remake is muddied by art-house ponderousness. But _Challengers_ is just _fun._ Even its synth-sexy, Giorgio Moroder-style score, by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, has a cool, serpentine vibe. There are times you want to fight _Challengers_—to take its sliced-and-diced timeline and put everything in its proper order—but resistance is futile. Guadagnino has essentially invited you out for a drink and maybe a little flirtation. Why not have a sip or two? The movie opens in 2019, in the midst of Art’s slump. To boost her husband’s confidence, Tashi has booked him into a “Challenger” event in glamorous New Rochelle, not knowing that Art’s opponent will be his nemesis, Patrick. For years, since they’d met at tennis camp at age 12, the two had been thick as thieves. But at some point along the movie’s wiggy timeline, we see their bitter fallout. And while Art’s career, with Tashi's ruthless guidance, has skyrocketed, Patrick’s has pooped out. He arrives in New Rochelle with a tapped-out credit card and nowhere to sleep. The night before his match, he folds himself into the backseat of his car to get some shut-eye. It's not giving too much away to say that Tashi is both the wedge that’s driven these two men apart and the magnetic force that unites them spiritually—maybe even physically. It’s a bummer, then, that—save one magnificent scene—Zendaya’s performance is the weakest in the movie. As the adult Tashi, a fierce competitor who takes her husband’s wins and losses so personally they may as well be her own, she strides through the movie like a powerhouse in her angular tailored shirtdresses and Chanel espadrilles. But Zendaya, gorgeous as she is, can’t spin beauty into charisma. Glowering appears to be her single dramatic tool. Zendaya is an appealing performer, but she doesn’t have enough ballast to play a woman who’s supposed to be the single obsession of two men. The idea, maybe, is that they’re so competitively fixated on each other that they can’t really see _her._ But for the most part, the movie isn’t very sexy when she’s around. She’s really just a reflective surface for these two guys, a mirror in which they can admire their own flexing muscles.  Zendaya as Tashi in Challengers Courtesy of Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures As well as, of course, each other’s. In the scenes where the two face off on the court as youngsters, there’s a feral joy to their competitiveness—they’re high on their mutual regard, surfing the waves of their testosterone. Later, as adults who have come to blows over a woman, they’re more aggressively macho as they smash the ball back and forth, kings of the jungle competing for the lioness prize, or at least for what they _think_ is the prize. In the movie’s greatest scene, the teenage Tashi, a rising tennis star who dazzles everyone who sees her on the court, seduces the lads Art and Patrick with tempting kisses, as if intending to lure them both to bed. Then she withdraws, and they’re left to confront—or not—their _real_ feelings for each other. It’s a gorgeous sequence, sexy, funny, and sly, and intentionally or otherwise, it points to the truth: this is really Faist and O’Connor’s movie. Each has a different, and distinctive, way of seducing us. Faist, with his noble nose and wily smile, is like a cross between a pale Roman god and the Artful Dodger. His skin is so fair that we can see every scab and scar, every point where Art’s tennis shoes have abraded his feet—his body is a map of what an athlete must endure. He’s both conniving and needy; one minute you want to slap him, the next you want to mother him. O’Connor’s Patrick has an entirely different, but no less enticing, energy. He's a bedhead Casanova, a little messy but never distracted from his goals. He’s a scamp and a scoundrel, the devil on wiry limbs. What would it be like to run your hand up his calf? Guadagnino and his frequent cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, don’t punish you for thoughts like that; it’s what they’re angling for. _Challengers_ goes by in a flash. Its ending is an erotic thunderclap. By the time it’s over, you don’t know what smacked you, but it felt like love. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6971016/challengers-review/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6971016/challengers-review/"},"headline":"Zendaya Is a Powerhouse, But Challengers Belongs to Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist","datePublished":"2024-04-26T15:13:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:52:26.334Z","description":"Luca Guadagnino's sexy tennis drama dispenses with the taboo around acknowledging the sensual appeal of athletes.","url":"https://time.com/6971016/challengers-review/","keywords":["movies","review","culturepod"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt95447bdc4748d08b/698a5609db2987673b26b95e/TIRE_TOWN_STILLS_PULL_230607_002_RC_rgb.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Stephanie Zacharek","jobTitle":"Film Critic","url":"https://time.com/author/stephanie-zacharek/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt95447bdc4748d08b/698a5609db2987673b26b95e/TIRE_TOWN_STILLS_PULL_230607_002_RC_rgb.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"CHALLENGERS (2023)","caption":"CHALLENGERS (2023)","creditText":"Courtest of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6971016/challengers-review/","name":"Zendaya Is a Powerhouse, But Challengers Belongs to Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist"}}]}] ```