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April 18, 2024 6 mins

Zendaya has a new movie out called Challengers which is all about tennis and love triangles, Ben O’Shea reviewed it and gave his score out of 5 stars.

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Great to flick with benohe.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Ben, Yes, I am Ben, good morning, and it's a game,
set and match. Talking about the new film Challengers tennis
theme with the superstar Zendaya, who's so hot right now
from the Spider Man movies, from Euphoria from June. She's
doing it all at the moment and now she's playing tennis.

(00:23):
She's bloody good at it too. And the film is
a cracker. So it comes from Luca Guardanino, an Italian
director who like his thing is, I guess, making movies
that make the audience feel a little bit uncomfortable. So
he made Call Me by Your Name starring Timidate Charama
Armie Hammer, which was which was sort of an underage

(00:46):
gay romance tale. And then he made Call Me by
Your Name with an actual cannibal. He had Timidation Sally
if you Know you Know, with which also starred Timotha
Shallamy as a sort of a sexy cannibal, like actual
cannibalism in the film, and it was. It was an
incredible film, but really polarized audiences. In comparison to those

(01:10):
two movies, Challengers is by far his most accessible mainstream audience,
but because he is a little bit left of center,
it's still you know, it's going to be a little
bit weird him, It's still him. It's still definitely him.
And so basically it is the story of these three
tennis prodigies who get to know each other as teenagers.

(01:32):
Zendeia's character Tashi Duncan, who's going to be the next
big thing in women's tennis, Alah sort of a Serena Williams,
and then her career is cut short by a horrific
knee injury, can never play again. And then you've got
these two fellas played by Mike Feist from West Side
Story and Josh O'Connor, who was Prince Charles in The Crown.

(01:55):
And so they they are doubles, doubles partners, Cain the Wambiens,
they're the Woodies. Basically, they won the teen US Open,
and then they meet Zendaia's character and they both fall
for her, and that sort of starts this sort of
decades long love triangle, and the film starts at the

(02:15):
end really where we find that Tashi has married Mike
Feist's character Art Donaldson. Art Donaldson has gone on to
become this incredible men's tennis player, he's won Grand Slams
and now he's at the end of his career. He's
got one more US Open left in him, and Tashi
is trying to live vicariously through him because her career

(02:38):
was cut short. She's his coach, and she realizes he's
struggling for motivation. It kind of honestly disgusts her a
little bit because she's thinking, if this was me, I
would be loving it. I wouldn't be blowing this chance
because she's like this uber competitor, and so she enters
him into a challenger tournament, which is like a low

(03:00):
grade tennis tournament, playing against nobodies to try and boost
his confidence before the US Open. It's a bit like
what Bernard Tomic's doing at the moment. Sorry, exactly. The
only thing this particular tournament isn't completely filled with nobodies.
There's one somebody. It's Art's former double partner, Patrick, who

(03:21):
also happens to be Tashi's former lover, and so the
film is basically about the final match of this tournament,
Art versus Patrick, with Tashi sitting on the sidelines, and
there's a lot going on here, and as the game unfolds,
Luca Guardanino. The director flashes back in time over the
previous thirteen years to individual moments that shaped this love triangle,

(03:44):
the drama, the soap opera, and there's intrigue, there's betrayal,
there's passion. The trailer for this film broke the internet
last year, if you remember, because it showed them as
teenagers in a hotel room seemingly about to bark on
a menajatois, which is not a tennis term, and code

(04:05):
violation exactly, double fault and so and so you straight
away get the get the idea that there's a there's
there's a lot going on here, a lot of emotion
that needs to be unpacked, and the tennis itself is
really quite interestingly shot. Mike feist Art Donaldson character is
the only one who went into this project as a

(04:27):
tennis player. He's actually an extremely good tennis player. The
other two never played tennis to to save their lives,
and the director, Luca didn't even know what the lines
on the court meant. And so despite all of that,
the tennis scenes are actually or is it real? But
it's it's real, It's all real, and it's it's set
to a driving techno soundtrack All the Tennis is that's

(04:51):
been created by Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails and
Atticus Ross. That was kind of film scoring duo who've
won Oscars. They're just like the guys at the moment
in Hollywood to make the score of the film if
you can't get Hans Zimmer and So the film is
a little camp, it's melodramatic. It won't be to everybody's tastes.

(05:12):
If you're going in there expecting a traditional sports movie,
that's not going to happen like. It doesn't give you
the big grand stand finish. No, but gosh, it's good.
It's one of the most enjoyable films you'll see this year.
I'm struggling to think of any other big tennis movie
that's ever.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
Well, there was match, There's ever been a really a
few low long whiles. But yeah, they do like to
make a tennis movie, and I've always enjoyed them. For
some reason, they're just I don't know, maybe it's because
tennis is less violent sports or something. It's pretty much
not violent at all most of the time. All right, So,

(05:49):
oh Wimbledon with Kirston Dance, Yes, of course, that.

Speaker 2 (05:53):
Was one about Mace and oone beyond Borg a couple
of years ago. I think Emma Stone, who does she play?
Did she play Chrissy Evidence? She plays the one we're
going to remember. So this is the one.

Speaker 1 (06:09):
This is the one we're going to remember. And how
many new balls please are you giving it?

Speaker 2 (06:15):
I'm going to give this one four and a half.
Who yep, this is this is a smash. It's a
nice game, set match. Wow, fantastic guys.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
The look we promised Snowboard
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