Rivales

Durante mucho tiempo no he estado tan dividido en el cine y no me he preguntado tan a menudo si me gusta lo que estoy viendo o si me molesta. Luca Guadagnino simplemente despierta en mí, con cada nueva película, un leve interés, un leve desinterés, o precisamente esta complicada relación de amor-odio. En su filmografía, simplemente fluctúa en ambas direcciones, como aquí las pelotas de tenis. Tal vez simplemente encaja. Sin embargo, al final de esta película, todo encaja de manera tan espectacular y golpea con tanta fuerza que le permitiré avanzar a la siguiente ronda. (26.05.2024)

Llevo mucho tiempo esperando esta película y estoy emocionado, por suerte no hubo decepción. Como amante de los cortometrajes, no me aburrí ni un momento, la película es impactante, marca el ritmo correctamente, así como la excelente música pulsante que la acompaña. Zendaya da, en mi opinión, su mejor actuación, aparte de su papel en Euforia. Su interpretación de Tasha es aguda, gélida, dominante y muy sexy. Con su actuación domina la película, pero tampoco los actorescaballeros se dejan avergonzar. Especialmente el igualmente dominante Josh O'Connor se ganó mi simpatía. El final corona toda la obra, gracias a Llámame por tu nombre ya sabemos que el director es realmente excelente en cuanto a las secuencias finales de sus películas. En este caso, el final fue una bella obra de arte que concluyó la película más interesante del año. (29.04.2024)

I like sports dramas and I was really looking forward to Challengers since the first trailer. Luca Guadagnino is a guarantee of quality filmmaking and he delivers a solid sports romance that, although a little scrappy at times in the second half, but Zendaya pulls all the attention to herself. The finale is nicely suspenseful, nice camera work, decent performances and overall a good film, but one I won't be watching again (I enjoyed the Williams sisters with Will Smith a tad more, there were stronger emotions there as well). 70% (20.05.2024)

Intense. No image slackens in its effort to be perfectly polished, and no matter what's happening, I feel like I can't take my eyes off even for a second. Despite the gilding, every additional explanatory memory is better, and the final scene, despite perhaps deliberate exaggeration, is very clever. Love is everything until suddenly it's not. Friendship is everything until suddenly it's not. Success is everything until suddenly it's not. But passion is everything always in this world. (17.10.2024)

I am fascinated by the filmmaker's boldness in serving scenes lasciviously through the lens of a promotional camera, with all the seductiveness, slow-motion walks, swaying hair and hips and curves, and the captivating nature of significant glances, sweaty skin and timing, and a hundred marketing tricks to capture the flying ball and the energy of the match, both literally and figuratively. The punchlines are almost comically exaggerated (kissing in threes, which turns into kissing in twos without them noticing for a good while? etc.) The self-assuredness of an artist who has the upper hand over form, that joy, that energy, the fusion in understanding, the detachment and carefree smile when it's all there, Luca Guadagnino understands that. Just an additional note on the human entanglement⁠—how intertwined they are: blond Art probably doesn't have a black-haired curly daughter who is the right age to have been born after the fling in Atlanta eight years ago, but who would want to think about that... For that staged seductiveness, one would almost not give it five stars, but that would be a mistake, a misunderstanding. I'm smiling with complete joy. (10.07.2024)

One would expect that the more famous Zendaya and Josh O'Connor would have stolen the show, but for me Mike Faist was perhaps even better and more emotionally resonant. Somewhere before the premiere, I read that Challengers is not really about tennis, but for me it was, since I used to watch this sport in my youth and quite enjoyed how skillfully the camera captured the individual shots and the speed of the ball between the rackets (really very nice shots). But of course, that's not the main thing; Luca Guadagnino once again tackled a somewhat unorthodox romance, showcasing a love triangle in several temporal dimensions, and it can be quite chilling when new plot details are revealed. It lacked just a little something to make it a top five, perhaps with the running time being unnecessarily drawn out for my tastes, but it is still eight-level quality, worth waiting longer for than was necessary. (01.06.2024)

Smart, insightful, layered and, although it doesn't seem like it at first, very entertaining once the flashbacks kick in. A deftly constructed love triangle story that offers different perspectives on different themes and playfully transcends the classic sports drama with the ease and finesse of a seasoned filmmaker. Some things may be a bit much, like the annoying sucking scene or the final cruelly long slow-motion sequences, but otherwise it's a damn catchy and original drama. Zendaya excels. (08.09.2024)

I'm not a fan of sports-themed films, but Challengers managed to win me over thanks to its story, the core of which revolved around a dynamic and plastic love triangle, whose individual vertices interacted with each other at the speed of a tennis ball. I commend the structure of the plot, where the framework was the decisive match, while the filler was what led to this great match. In fact, I ended up liking the sporting aspect of the film - the quick shots between faces, ball hits and rackets really drew me into the action, almost onto the tennis court, you could say. Last but not least, I have to highlight the incredible soundtrack, whose electronic tones fit the story perfectly. (16.05.2024)

Malicious demonstration of a proxy war, in which two heated pipes are manipulated so that a third party could have at least one moment of real joy from something. Brilliantly described mentality of people for whom the surroundings did not offer anything better than smashing a rocket into the ball when things are going well or smashing a rocket into the ground when they are not. How can they possibly adore natures that are built on constant competition, measurement, and comparison of statistics and who spend their entire lives among gyms, playgrounds, and hotel rooms. Sensorially incredibly brutal film with constant hints of ugly violence that never actually happens, but instead, with every hit of the ball, you will have the tendency to flinch. Raging Bull for the current generation with the final scene that will once again explain to you why going to the movies is worth it. I would imagine the ideal screening with a served drink that would be poured from the tears of people who came to the movie for tennis. "I just want to see some good fucking tennis." (26.07.2024)

A heated tennis love story full of ego, unrequited love and the desire to win. Zendaya, as the tennis goddess who gets her hand pecked by Prince Charles of the Decreased Manners and his good second in command, is flawless. Ditto for the plot, where you don't know how it's all going to turn out until the last moment. I could have done with fewer slow-motion shots, they do make sense for filming a fast-paced sport like tennis to dramatize the hits, but by the end Luca Guadagnino uses them so much that it paradoxically dulls the climax of the story a bit. Yet the matches otherwise don't lack punch at all, as both the score and the soundtrack, as well as the flourishes with the camera during each exchange, give the film a liveliness that I've missed in tennis films for many years. (25.04.2024)