During my lazy Saturday of movies, I capped it off with Challengers -- the tennis, drama, sort of romance movie starring Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O'Connor. I liked it and think I like it even more a couple days later, but I'm not sure I'm as crazy about it as the expectations seem to be from critics. I was not surprised to see critics with it at 88 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and the audience score at 73 percent. As I was watching it, I was annoyed with several things -- and the ending is going to piss some people off -- but as I thought about it more, I get what the director was trying to do, and it worked. I didn't really have that reaction in real time though. Zendaya, it's her movie, was great, and she's on her way to being whatever movie star is possible in 2024. The male leads are good, but she holds the movie together and is sort of the puppet master when it comes to plot and tone of the movie.
The movie utilizes a ton of flashbacks -- spanning a 13-period -- and early on it worried me because it felt like too much time was being taken and the current story wouldn't have time to develop, but as the movie goes on, it finds itself with the rhythm of the back and forth and works well. The tennis is mostly accurate, though I got irrationally bothered they started a college tennis match with singles. Also, the movie shows tennis as taking up way more oxygen in the sports world than it currently does. The movie is set in 2019. Visually, the movie really works, and I think that's one of the reasons the critics like it so much. The cuts and action are excellent, and it's a lot of up close and then moving camera angles. There's a scene and a secondary storyline that will turn off some people, and I've been thinking about where it falls on the necessary vs. gratuitous scale. I've landed on not completely necessary, but I get the point, and in some ways, it helps explain what the true point of the movie is.
Overall, it's worth the watch. It's very much a 2024 movie, but it's the first time Zendaya has completely carried a movie even though she's one of three leads. It's an interesting movie from standpoint of we only really see these three characters over a 131-minute runtime. That's a lot of pressure on them all being pretty interesting for the viewer.
I'll give it 4 out of 5 stars.
If you reply, don't spoil the movie. Or if you do, use the spoiler function here. It's new enough I don't want to be an asshole.
The movie utilizes a ton of flashbacks -- spanning a 13-period -- and early on it worried me because it felt like too much time was being taken and the current story wouldn't have time to develop, but as the movie goes on, it finds itself with the rhythm of the back and forth and works well. The tennis is mostly accurate, though I got irrationally bothered they started a college tennis match with singles. Also, the movie shows tennis as taking up way more oxygen in the sports world than it currently does. The movie is set in 2019. Visually, the movie really works, and I think that's one of the reasons the critics like it so much. The cuts and action are excellent, and it's a lot of up close and then moving camera angles. There's a scene and a secondary storyline that will turn off some people, and I've been thinking about where it falls on the necessary vs. gratuitous scale. I've landed on not completely necessary, but I get the point, and in some ways, it helps explain what the true point of the movie is.
Overall, it's worth the watch. It's very much a 2024 movie, but it's the first time Zendaya has completely carried a movie even though she's one of three leads. It's an interesting movie from standpoint of we only really see these three characters over a 131-minute runtime. That's a lot of pressure on them all being pretty interesting for the viewer.
I'll give it 4 out of 5 stars.
If you reply, don't spoil the movie. Or if you do, use the spoiler function here. It's new enough I don't want to be an asshole.
