{"id":22828,"date":"2024-04-25T07:59:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-25T14:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/?p=22828"},"modified":"2024-05-08T14:35:48","modified_gmt":"2024-05-08T21:35:48","slug":"challengers-reviews-what-critics-are-saying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/challengers-reviews-what-critics-are-saying\/","title":{"rendered":"Challengers&#8217; Reviews Are Great &#8211; Read What Critics Are Saying"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Luca Guadagnino&#8217;s new movie, <em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.atomtickets.com\/movies\/challengers\/333909\">Challengers<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, is soon to hit theaters and it looks as though he&#8217;ll have another critically acclaimed hit on his hands if critics&#8217; reviews are anything to judge by. The movie stars Zendaya as Tashi, a former tennis prodigy turned coach who lives her life fast and unapologetically. She&#8217;s married to Art (Mike Faist), a tennis star, and friend-slash-rival of Patrick (Josh O&#8217;Connor). When Patrick and Art find themselves going head to head in the finals of a tournament meant to put Art back on top, it all gets very tangled between the two of them and Tashi &#8211; professionally and erotically. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"CHALLENGERS | Final Trailer\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-2N3hmRmwHQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Critics are largely praising the sizzling chemistry between the three leads. Read on for what critics are saying about <em>Challengers<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/challengers-movie-review-zendaya-cec4315880486ff93454e22bc14b7d6c\">Associated Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>&#8220;[L]ike&nbsp;\u201cCall Me By Your Name\u201d&nbsp;did for Chalamet, \u201cChallengers\u201d is one of those rare original big-screen delights that firmly announces the arrival of a new generation of movie stars. Zendaya and Faist already had a bit of a leg up. She has played significant supporting roles in some of the biggest movies of the past few years, from&nbsp;\u201cSpider-Man\u201d&nbsp;to&nbsp;\u201cDune,\u201d&nbsp;and he had had his big cinematic breakthrough as Riff in Steven Spielberg\u2019s&nbsp;\u201cWest Side Story.\u201d&nbsp;But it\u2019s O\u2019Connor who really comes out on top, effectively shedding any lingering image of him as a&nbsp;whiny, dweeby Prince Charles&nbsp;in seasons three and four of \u201cThe Crown.\u201d In \u201cChallengers,\u201d his Patrick Zweig is the cocky, flirty, slightly mean, slightly dirty and slightly broken bad boyfriend of our fictional dreams.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2024\/05\/06\/challengers-movie-review\">The New Yorker<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>&#8220;Even so, Tashi\u2019s tense gaze seems to contain a small cosmos of anguished possibilities. Is she wryly envisioning herself as the ball that Art and Patrick keep slamming over the net? Or perhaps she\u2019s the trophy that one of them will hoist aloft\u2014and, if so, does that make her the inevitable winner or the ultimate loser?&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/culture\/2024\/04\/challengers-movie-zendaya-review-tennis-call-me-by-your-name.html\">Slate<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>&#8220;<em>Challengers&nbsp;<\/em>is upfront in its desire to furnish the viewer with beautiful bodies and faces to look at. It doesn\u2019t hurt that Zendaya, Faist (who broke out as Riff in Steven Spielberg\u2019s&nbsp;<em>West Side Story<\/em>), and O\u2019Connor (who played Prince Charles on&nbsp;<em>The Crown<\/em>) are each a piece of eye candy of a different flavor: Zendaya sleek and imperturbable, Faist elegant and dancerlike, O\u2019Connor a scruffy charmer whose devilish grin recalls a young Nicolas Cage. Thanks to ingenious costuming and styling, these three excellent actors, respectively 27 (Zendaya), 32 (Faist), and 33 (O\u2019Connor), all carry off the trick of seeming to age from recent high school graduates to adults in their early 30s.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/observer.com\/2024\/04\/challengers-review-zendaya-serves-up-a-psychosexual-tennis-flick\/\">The Observer<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>&#8220;The central drama is juicy beyond words, and the way the relationships unravel is delicious. As Tashi Donaldson-nee-Duncan, Zendaya gets to flex a very different acting muscle than what audiences have seen&#8230;The boys aren\u2019t on her level as athletes or as psychosexual tennis lovers, and watching Zendaya pull their strings with that sly grin of hers is an absolute delight. She also gets some of the movie\u2019s best lines, delivered with an iciness that\u2019ll knock the wind right out of you.<\/p><p>Faist and O\u2019Connor deliver some fantastic dueling performances too. Faist, best known for his scene-stealing turn in the recent&nbsp;<em>West Side Story&nbsp;<\/em>redux, sheds any vestige of a theater kid background to play Art. In the flashbacks, he\u2019s sentimental and soft, polite but with a penchant for passive aggression. In the now, he\u2019s a tennis machine verging on a mid-life crisis that\u2019s only exacerbated by seeing his old friend\u2014his inevitable emotional implosion comes with a rocket serve that\u2019ll make you jump in your seat. As for O\u2019Connor, Patrick somehow manages to be greasier than the actor\u2019s wayward wanderer in&nbsp;<em>La Chimera<\/em>&nbsp;and infinitely more smarmy. Patrick\u2019s cool guy schtick is out of gas somewhere in the middle of the movie\u2019s timeline, and though he\u2019s self aware about it, Patrick is still a man who thinks he can charm and connive his way out of anything. He\u2019s not likable, but he\u2019s certainly magnetic, with the smile tugging at the corner of his mouth saying more than he ever will.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/2024\/04\/challengers-review-zendaya-luca-guadagnino-1235882400\/\">Deadline<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>&#8220;Zendaya\u2019s Tashi is an intimidating presence, both on and off the court. She navigates her role with a compelling mix of strength and sophistication, and portraying Tashi as a catalyst in Art and Patrick\u2019s lives giving her the role of attractor, antagonist and trickster.&nbsp;<\/p><p>O\u2019Connor and Faist bring a palpable chemistry that transcends simple rivalry, suggesting a deeper, almost symbiotic relationship shaped by years of friendship and competition. Their interactions encapsulate the film\u2019s central premise that love and rivalry are not mutually exclusive but are instead two sides of the same coin.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Likewise, the synth-charged score from industrial composer legends Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is getting a lot of love and praise for its power and the way it drives the tension in the film. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.atomtickets.com\/image\/upload\/h_960,q_auto\/v1687399995\/ingestion-images-archive-prod\/archive\/1687399995068_333909_cops_1.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Still, critics have also pointed out the movie&#8217;s marketing has been a bit misleading &#8211; there is steamy eroticism there, but not as overt as the trailers have led people to believe:<br><br><strong>Associated Press<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>&#8220;It\u2019s still a sexy tennis movie about friendship, love, competition and sport set to a synth-y score from&nbsp;Trent Reznor&nbsp;and&nbsp;Atticus Ross&nbsp;\u2014 it just might not contain exactly what you think it does. But remember,&nbsp;Luca Guadagnino&nbsp;is the one who filmed&nbsp;Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet&nbsp;with&nbsp;that peach,&nbsp;perhaps more memorable than any actual sex scene from the past decade. Manage expectations, but also trust.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The New Yorker<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>&#8220;That failed seduction isn\u2019t the only instance of coitus interruptus. So effortlessly does Guadagnino establish a vibe of free-floating horndoggery that it takes a moment to realize how little actual intercourse there is in the movie. It scarcely matters.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Observer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>&#8220;Though the film earns its R rating, it\u2019s not through sex\u2014the three stars are never fully nude, never go further than a steamy makeout or some dry humping. But that doesn\u2019t stop&nbsp;<em>Challengers&nbsp;<\/em>from being exceptionally sensual, and Tashi\u2019s voyeuristic view of Art and Patrick (and their tennis) adds to that.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Ultimately, as the <em>Observer<\/em> also goes on to say, &#8220;Loud, long, a little messy and very sweaty,&nbsp;<em>Challengers&nbsp;<\/em>may not be as sexy as its&nbsp;explosive first trailer&nbsp;implied, but it\u2019s still a hell of a movie.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.atomtickets.com\/movies\/challengers\/333909\">Get tickets to <em>Challengers<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Luca Guadagnino&#8217;s new movie, Challengers, is soon to hit theaters and it looks as though he&#8217;ll have another critically acclaimed hit on his hands if critics&#8217; reviews are anything to judge by. The movie stars Zendaya as Tashi, a former tennis prodigy turned coach who lives her life fast and unapologetically. She&#8217;s married to Art [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":22829,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[40,37],"class_list":["post-22828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorial","tag-featuredpage","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22828"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22839,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22828\/revisions\/22839"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}