Rivales

I had very high expectations for this movie to come out and planned weeks in advance to see it. Perhaps that was unfair to factor in for my rating, but overall it missed the mark.

I had trouble following the timelines of certain scenes and felt confused throughout. Also, the movie basically has only three characters that have any role of significance which I felt was odd. Perhaps the umpire would be considered the fourth character that you see and he has a very small part.

I thought Zendaya was brilliant, but I didn't particularly like her character or the two competitors. There was nobody that you wanted to root for. For a tennis movie, rather go for Wimbledon than this one unfortunately.

The only reason I went to see this movie was to see if Zendaya could hang with the big dogs. To see if she can carry a film all by herself. She has the talent, she has the looks. She has it all. I think this movie is a good start to launch her career as a bonfide movie star. That being said, the movie itself was okay. Just okay. Not great, not bad but okay. I thought Zendaya was good. Her performance was something I expected, which I guess is a good thing. Didn't blow me out of the water but overall good. The actor who played Patrick, in my opinion did a great job. However everything else about this movie just fell short for me. Too much style and not enough substance.

I felt that three of them were good but Guadagino chose to focus on (a) the product placement (god.. could they be more obvious?) (b) the annoying soundtrack accompanying the endless scenes in slow motion of people staring at each other, and (c) cool camera angles. Don't get me wrong. I understand film is another language in itself but I think the acting is far from the priority of the filmmaker. In the few moments where we get to see them interact with each other there is chemistry. I don't understand why he (or Amazon) chose not to focus more on that. I was so over that annoying soundtrack of gay 90s club. Did he choose to cut the story like that because he knew there was not much story to tell to begin with?

This was my first Luca Guadagnino film, so I'm not sure if any of these criticisms can be explained by "it's just his style" but who knows. The trailer makes the movie look fun, and while there are humorous moments, these are few and far between.

We have two young tennis players - one successful and the other is not for various reasons - both in love with the same woman who seems to jump between them in what makes for a complicated love triangle. Add in electronic music played loudly over scenes where not much is happening, gratuitous nudity (so many penises), and neverending slo-motion in an overlong running time and you have Challengers.

I liked Zendaya when she was playing the role of mature mother and retired tennis professional, but she all too easily slips into an angsty teen who feels too young to play the character.

My favourite moments were the two male leads just hanging out (they had more chemistry than Zendaya with either one), but I wasn't exactly sure what the seemingly homoerotic moments added to the story.

Despite the above points, this movie held my interest and had me wondering exactly where it was going. When it landed, however, I felt cheated of 2 hours by watching a movie that thought it was smarter than it really was. Severely lacking payoff.

"Im doing this for both of us. You know that, right."

Idk if this was the straightest gay movie or the gayest straight movie.

• The thing that stopped this film from feeling incredibly boring was the way it played with time.

• Took 30 minutes to slow down and breathe. But if it didb't, I would've given it half a star less.

• Bad acting in trailers, far from the case in the actual film. Trailers didn't sell me but this was a good movie. Wouldn't go back to it though.

• The trailers spoiled the midpoint.

• I think Tashi should've agreed to train Patrick as a way of tricking him to lose. I also thought the guys were the real ones playing Tashi. I was waiting for a flashback scene where the they plan the whole thing. That might've been generic but I also wasn't expecting a "hug and walk off into the sunset" type of ending.