We take a look at what is being said about Luca Guadagnino’s film starring Zendaya and Josh O’Connor.
The Guardian: **** “Moment by moment, line by line and scene by scene, Challengers delivers sexiness and laughs, intrigue and resentment, and Guadagnino’s signature is there in the intensity, the closeups and the music stabs.”
The Telegraph: ***** “Umpiring a rivalry between Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor, the star’s romantic thriller is the most purely pleasurable film of the year.”
Empire: ***** “Zendaya gives a performance of subtle power, showing us just what she’s made of, delivering Kuritzkes’ venomous putdowns with no mercy, wielding withering glances to lethal effect: if looks can kill, she’s a mass murderer.”
Variety: “Behind every high-speed volley and smashed racket courses raw emotion, resulting in the steamiest (and funniest) sports-centric love triangle since “Bull Durham.” With some romantic movies, you’d do well to pack tissues. In the case of “Challengers,” bring a towel. It’s that rare film where you’ll work up a sweat just from spectating.”
The Hollywood Reporter: “Smart, seductive and bristling with sexual tension, Challengers is arguably Luca Guadagnino’s most purely pleasurable film to date; it’s certainly his lightest and most playful.”
The Independent: ***** “Luca Guadagnino’s thrilling new movie posits that every conversation is a tennis match, and every tennis match is a sex scene – you will be powerless to resist it.”
IGN.com: “The love-triangle drama takes a moment to fully click, but once it does, it’s energetic and exciting. Led by a trio of remarkable performances, it plays like a daydream of movement, ambition, and grudges rooted so deeply beneath the characters’ skin that weeding them out might cause nerve damage.”
Radio Times: **** “Challengers is a breezy film that will appeal to a wide audience thirsty for a sexy on-screen match up.”
NME.com: **** “The script, by playwright and novelist Justin Kuritzkes, is brilliantly structured, opening with the Challenger tournament before flashing back to revealing how the characters first met as teenagers, then slowly drip-feeding details of their lives in the intervening years. To that end, the screenplay unfolds like a tennis match in itself, with our sympathies frequently switching back and forth between the players as each seeks to gain the upper hand, both on and off the court.”
Deadline: “Kuritzkes’ script shines in its character development, allowing the trio to be fully realized individuals who are aware of their flaws and desires.”
Challengers is out in cinemas on the 26th April.