After a strike-induced 8-month delay, Luca Guadagnino’s psychosexual sports drama, Challengers has finally bounced into theaters. The film follows a tennis coach and her star player husband who find themselves competing against a former friend and lover. A powerhouse trio comprises the cast: household name Zendaya, Mike Faist, who stood out as Riff in West Side Story, and Josh O’Connor, is best known for playing Prince Charles on Netflix’s The Crown. Guadagnino, for those who might not know, directed Oscar-winner Call Me By Your Name (2017), starring Timothee Chalamet. Since Amazon MGM Studios has distribution rights in the U.S., Challengers will likely be available to stream on Amazon Prime Video after its theatrical run. 

In this episode of The Long Take Review, Antonio, P.T., and I volley a variety of reactions to and interpretations of the film, which is aggressive and bold in its style yet subtle or ambiguous in its storytelling. Antonio lends his expert knowledge of tennis to our discussion as we assess this as a sports movie, Jen overanalyzes the relationship drama, and P.T. brings a critical eye to the film form and character development. For about 15 seconds there, we were actually podcasting.

You can listen to The Long Take Review on Substack, Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Image Credit: The Hollywood Reporter

Movies News Update Quentin Tarantino makes a big announcement. 3:35

The Short Take We each share our general impressions of Challengers. 6:16

The Recommendation Algorithm Who should see this film? Do you need to be a tennis fan to enjoy it? Does the marketing of the film set false expectations about how much sex is in it? 13:08

SPOILER MODE What actually happened in that final scene? 26:07

The Rhetorical Situation Jen pathetically attempts to explain the concept of homosocial male desire from literary theory and how it guided her interpretation of the film. 1:02:55

Which character is our favorite/for whom were we rooting during the film? 1:15:24

Oscars Watch Does Challengers have a shot at any Oscar nominations? 1:37:54

All music licensed through Epidemic Sound.

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