Zendaya and Cast become stars

Long before anyone saw the tennis saga of Luca Guadagnino’s love triangle Challengers, people knew about the kiss shared between her three co-leads, Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor. First shown in a trailer in 2023, the moment immediately sparked a combination of excitement and slightly nervous curiosity: would the film really be go there, continuing the implicit homoeroticism of this excited bisexual montage? Or would that go along the lines of Armie Hammer and fishing in the director’s film? Call me by your namepulling out at the last minute to recolor the balls on Challengerstennis courts from yellow to blue?

Guadagnino happily opts for the former, beating down the queerbaiting allegations with a close-up of Faist and O’Connor kissing passionately. But what’s most memorable about this scene isn’t the sheer lustful thrill of seeing two sexy young men finally act out on what feels like years of pent-up sexual tension. Rather, it’s Zendaya, sitting between them and, mid-kiss, leaning back to get a better view of the action. With a smirk on her face, the actress looks like a naughty child crushing two naked Barbie dolls together. After using his body to bring these two boys into an intimate embrace, his voyeuristic self-satisfaction is palpable. Two guys kissing is hot, of course. But Zendaya’s reaction is just as moving. And just as revealing.

Perhaps more than any previous project, Challengers highlights the movie star magnetism that surrounds Zendaya. During the film’s many kinetic match sequences, the camera focuses on his gaze as his head swivels from one side of the field to the other. Even when she says nothing, the film shines just by putting her in the frame. But Guadagnino knows that two movie stars are better than one. three is the best case scenario. To complement Zendaya’s likability, the director brought in two worthy actors with equally sparkling screen presences for a dynamically executed love triangle. (Just watch all those slow-motion action shots, reveling in the glistening sweat dripping down Faist and O’Connor’s svelte frames.) As a result, Challengers is more than just a fun movie; it feels like a real arrival for three of Hollywood’s most promising young talents.

In the film, the trio all play talented tennis players. Faist and O’Connor play the disciplined but shy Arthur “Art” Donaldson and the brash and impulsive Patrick Zweig, respectively, best friends at tennis camp, while Zendaya plays Tashi Duncan, a Serena Williams-like prodigy whose promising career is derailed by injury. . Spanning 13 years, Challengers jumps back and forth in time to fill in the gaps on how Tashi went from her relationship with Patrick in her late teens to her marriage and birth of a child with Art in her early 30s; somewhere along the line, a divide emerges between Patrick and Art. The film ends with a final match between the former doubles partners, although the stakes depend on who wins and takes their time to fully focus.

Of course, none of these actors constitute a real “discovery”. Zendaya has been an industry mainstay since she was a teenager starring in beloved shows like Shake it And KC undercover. In the half-decade since she left the Disney Channel, she has won back-to-back Emmys for her raw portrayal of a teenage drug addict in the record-breaking HBO film. Euphoria. Josh O’Connor also won an Emmy (and a Golden Globe), thanks to his lauded portrayal of Prince Charles in The crown, which transformed an otherwise despicable historical figure into someone vaguely deserving of pity. Even Faist, by far the least known of the trio, has been steadily climbing the ranks for some time: after his stunning performance in Steven Spielberg’s 2021 remake of West Side Storythe actor, already a Tony nominee, became the lucky recipient of the an Internet campaign to get him nominated for an Oscar. (Alas, it didn’t work.)

However, the three actors felt right at precipice a true cinema superstar. Despite his involvement in box office hit franchises like Dune and Marvel Spider ManZendaya has not yet lead a film in itself. She tested the waters with Malcolm and Marya small project that she carried out with Euphoriais Sam Levinson during the pandemic, but this double has never seen the inside of a theater before landing on Netflix. Challengers is the mononymous actor’s first big-screen outing with high-profile billing – and as she’s made clear, a lot depends on its success.

O’Connor has has headlined several films, but until now has been more of an indie darling than a matinee idol. God’s own countrya steamy gay romance about two sturdy men working on a lamb farm, has rightly earned cult classic status in the years since its release (largely thanks to the pathos O’Connor brought his repressed character), but despite wide success, it failed to make a dent at the box office. The recently published The Chimerain which he plays a testy archaeologist turned gravedigger, deserves even more praise to the actor for an equally haunted performance, but as GodsAlice Rohrwacher’s film is destined to become a favorite of a very few.

Challengers seems destined to change all that. After spending years producing arthouse dishes like I am love and the Oscar nominee Call me by your name, Challengers finds Guadagnino at his cinematic mainstream. It’s a big, bold, distinctly Hollywood film, with a big production budget of $55 million to back it up – and a lively cast needed to make it a success.

Take Patrick: impetuous to the point of excess, the character is quite id, going through life without worrying about anything beyond the present moment. But what could be off-putting becomes strangely sexy in the hands of O’Connor. The actor, using his disheveled appearance to set the Bad Boy tone, brings a shaggy charm to Patrick, tapping into a mischievous arrogance that’s also endearing and playful. Watch the way he sprawls in a steam room, using a ridiculously skinny towel to simply barely to cover. And it’s Before he drops him completely, lasciviously pushing the much more timid Art into a literal Cock swinging contest. (When Art asks if his former friend can “put your dick away,” Patrick happily replies with a sneer, “We’re in a tough spot.” sauna. “) Although characters like God’s own countryit’s Johnny and The ChimeraArthur wasn’t as sure of himself as Patrick, all three are linked by an equally unpredictable volatility, an intense restlessness that keeps them from feeling too settled in their own lives.

Faist, for his part, is perfect as O’Connor’s clean-cut foil, matching Patrick’s rebelliousness with Art’s nurse. dedication to rules and structure. Art is the beta version of Patrick’s alpha – and certainly to that of Tashi, but it’s a testament to Faist’s incarnation that the relative gentleness of his character still feels softotherwise completely sexy, like a father taking his daughter to school.

It’s a delicate balance reminiscent of what he did in West Side Story. In Spielberg’s musical, he softened the trigger-happy street criminal, Riff. Through his deeply felt performance, Riff’s characteristic masculine bravado seemed too performative, as if he were going through the motions out of a sense of duty more than any active desire. Art seems like a natural extension: like his Riff, the tennis pro struggles with feelings of inadequacy and discouragement.

And then there’s Zendaya. The actress is no neophyte to the big screen, but Tashi, a driven prodigy who has navigated the spotlight since childhood, seems like the type of role not only written for her, but actually inspired by the space it already occupies in the real world – a case of art imitate life, and not the reverse. While Euphoria‘s Rue is perhaps the most emotionally dynamic actress yet, Tashi finds her the most electrifying and irresistible. This is someone whose attractiveness must be innate. As the character keeping her cards closest to her chest, Tashi very rarely lets her guard down, but the audience should still feel drawn to her.

Zendaya has never been more up to the challenge, locating humanity beneath Tashi’s inscrutable facade. It transforms what could be a lifeless archetype: at one end, the trophy for which two enthusiastic men alternately fight and admire each other; on the other, a femme fatale determined to destroy a lifelong friendship – into something much more complex. However Challengers could be read as a film about Art and Patrick, in which Tashi is just the object used to help them see the truth about themselves, Zendaya refuses to be seen as a mere pawn. She transforms Tashi into a gravitational force; even when she is “I take such good care of (her) little white boys“, the film keeps turning around her.

Of course, one of the characteristics of a TRUE The matinee idol’s ability to command the screen in sexy adult roles. Challengers, with its erotically charged tennis matches and barely concealed sexual tension, is easily one of the sexiest films of the year, the type of lustful R-rated content we almost don’t see in theaters anymore. It is essentially excited cinema– and thanks to the perfectly tailored, larger-than-life performances given by Zendaya, Faist and Josh, audiences can go to the theater and lose themselves in the exciting fantasy of this classically lusty menage a trois. NOW, It is how to serve an ace.

Challengers is now playing in theaters.