the challengers post
the challengers post I've been talking about making since I started this blog. skip to the dissertation for some real #FilmAnalysis cuz it is literally that serious!
my year in review for 2024 will have a massive portion dedicated to Challengers (2024). you could not and cannot tell me shit about that movie to this dayyyyyyyy??? like nothing beats it for me.
oh challengers, my challengers...
it's funny because when the trailers and promo had began I was lowkey-highkey doubtful of it and what it would really be but I was sat Friday night when it came out and girl.
sorry to the random white man that was sat next to me that night because I was actually scratching and clawing at my chair and biting my fist watching that fucking film.
if you haven't seen the film just go and watch it like seriously because I can't even convey the power vested in that film. I don't know what to tell you cuz you littttterally had to be there for Challengers Spring to really be in the context of brat summer and if you were under the impression you were having a brat summer without the prerequisite of Challengers Spring you are so sorely mistaken and I'm sorry I have to be the one to inform you of this.
I saw that movie in theaters 8 times. I saw it the first time and knew I had to make everyone I know go and see it. and I did. I saw that movie alone I think 2 out of those 8 times, every other time I haddddd to bring someone along to understand the insanity of that movie. like how do you not? how do you see something that connects so deeply to the pits of your spirit and just walk off?
where are my wattpad girls? where are my tumblr girls? where are my feral ao3 girls. I was out, on the prowl, to find them and bring them out to see this damn movie. if you were any of those girls, you would understand how that movie was littttterally taken from the depths of a 130k word ao3 fanfic and brought to the public for all eyes to see and consume.
I had seen the movie so many times that at my last viewing with oomfs I could recite the whole thing, line by line, under my breath. it is fully and exactly that serious.
so it was devastating to see the lack of promo that came out of that movie. and I get it, it's a Luca Guadagino film, his films never get serious promo like that, but like. why couldn't this one be different? it literally has Zendaya. like, I understand the act of being nonchalant and esoteric with Timothee Chalamet, but this is Zendaya. Zendaya. like, she's literally a celebrity with no last name. why can't we have some promo?
and the crazy part is that they HAD promo! they had plans! they had merch! and they never put it out. anybody else remember the tashi duncan official Instagram account that was promptly deleted? the Challengers Magazine that was scrapped? where are the fucking THE DUNCANATOR shirts? Amazon MGM, do you hate me? but what can we do, truly? sometimes you just can't win.
Challengers has my heart. I hadn't been that crazy about a movie in so long, but it captivated me. but I was predisposed to love it, I believe. I'm a massive Zendaya fan and I am so pro-bisexual-man propaganda it's crazy. but it was more than that. the drama of it all, the editing, the insane soundtrack, all of it. tennis as a metaphor, the characters being metaphors of tennis as a sport, how tennis bleeds into every part of their relationships, all of it.
here's just a tiny bit of a rant I have about challengers so please just bear with me cuz I have to get this out.
snippet of the dissertation
it should not be ignored that in Patrick and Art's doubles match Patrick completely dominates the court and Art doesn't hit the ball even once. when they win, the two of them are so ecstatic but for different reasons. Art because they won, but Patrick because he got to do it with Art. no matter how much Patrick was dominating the court and really could have accomplished this win all on his own, he is happier that more than anything else, he did it with Art. 
when Patrick gets Art to watch Tashi's match, it is, of course, because he is being a horndog, but also because he wants to see how Art would react to seeing Tashi. his want for Tashi and his want for Art to also want Tashi, with him, are his motivating factors. and I'd argue that the latter was much stronger than the former.
at the party later, they take turns watching the other experience their infatuation and lust for Tashi, and seeing each other experiencing this want further intensified these feelings towards her, more than I think Tashi just being Tashi did. it was a battle for the two of them, a match.
Tashi comes in and immediately clocks the dynamic and the vibe they have. she sees Patrick's dominating nature in his demeanor and brazen attitude and subdues it by instead tapping into Art's need for reassurance and doting. she wields the power of her attention with precision to get to the core of the two of them, enraptured with her siren-like spirit. 
in the hotel room later when Tashi finally stops by, she further gauges their dynamic seamlessly with her choice of conversation. and they fall for it easily, because they're both thinking with their dicks. Art's helpless puppy demeanor and Patrick's doting but dominating nature make them easy to manipulate, but that's for later. for now, they will fight it out to see who will be good enough at tennis to be with Tashi.
when Tashi begins dating Patrick, their dynamic is testy. in the same way that they are both very dominant and assertive in the courts, they are in their relationship; fiery and burning hot together both in intimacy and disagreements. Tashi in my eyes comes off as very self-assured before she gets in the middle of Art and Patrick's relationship. once she's Patrick's girlfriend, she is defensive when Art brings him up, knowing that Art still likes her and is trying to get to her (trying to beat her at her own game).
Art reveals his cards as being equally manipulative when he tells Tashi that Patrick isn't in love with her (the way that he is). Tashi sees through this and, honestly, pulls out her queencard, telling Art and the audience her motivations: she doesn't care if Patrick is in love with her, and greater than that, she hits Art where it hurts when she responds,
"What makes you think I want someone to be in love with me?"
which, gag, is the winning shot against Art. he's not the best tennis player out of the three of them, he's dead last. he can't beat Patrick in his tennis skill, but thought he could at least beat him in love. Tashi squashes this completely, and he knows he's lost this game with her.
when Tashi and Patrick hook up in her dorm later, their dominating and biting spirits are on full display. they treat sex and intimacy as they would a match on the courts. and they volley well, though Tashi keeps derailing their cat-and-mouse game. they are both fully in sync, though, when they bring up Art in comparison to Patrick. Patrick is moaning and groaning into Tashi's ear as she tells him how Art is such a good tennis player, how he's smart, and how he's good-looking.
the true tell in their dynamic is when Patrick responds, asking if they're still playing for her number. and Tashi answers, with all the truth in her heart, "You always think you won before the match is over."
Tashi crushes Patrick's momentum by being her truest self: a tennis aficionado. when Patrick asks her if she could just be in the moment with him and stop talking about tennis, it completely turns her off. "we're always talking about tennis." she says. both boys neglect to recognize the fact that Tashi's first love is tennis, and tennis comes before everything.
this moment leads to their crash and burn, with Patrick telling Tashi he doesn't want her to be his coach and that he's not one of her fans like Art is. this hurts Tashi more than Art's claim that Patrick isn't in love with her because she doesn't care for romantic love in the first place. she does want fans. she wants to be loved for her prowess on the courts and her work with the racket, not loved for whatever these boys think she is.
so when Patrick refuses to come to her game and be in the stands for her at her lowest moment, it breaks her. the injury broke her, really, but his not being there really did a number on her concept of self. Patrick told her that they are peers, she's not someone that he looks up to. he wanted her because, as he says later, she's a really hot woman. on the other hand, Tashi wanted Patrick because he could play a good game of tennis, and that's what she wants to see more than anything else.
but now that Tashi doesn't have her defining trait anymore and can't have fans like she did, she plays into the love the boys had for her, becoming the person Art thinks she is so that she can still have her tennis dream, through him. when she gets him to admit that he's still in love with her, she regains the power she lost by no longer being the best at her sport. now, she can make him the best and still be in the picture. 
but it's never enough. Tashi and Art both know that Patrick is the first and the best of the two boys. it's why Tashi chose Patrick in the first place, he beat Art in their match. and though Tashi and Art have gone far in their career as player and coach (and husband and wife), Patrick still looms over their relationship. because Patrick is tennis. 
Tashi and Patrick are drawn to each other because they are both fires on the court. though Tashi wants more from her life than to just be a talented tennis player, she sees that Patrick has the talent to go decently far just running off of tennis alone. she looks down on him somewhat because of his attitude toward his tennis career and respects that Art is going to school to have something of a backup to tennis. when they hook up in her dorm, she tells him that Art has gotten better while they've been at school. whether this is to further incense their competition for her in his mind or to persuade Patrick to have a backup plan, only Tashi knows.
once Tashi loses her ability to play tennis, it's something of a slap in the face to see that Patrick is still going after so many years by just hitting a ball with a racket, though he's obviously struggling financially. in Tashi's mind, tennis is a relationship. in tennis, the two players understand each other completely, as does the crowd because it is purely the love of the game. and, as Tashi says, being in this moment of understanding feels like being in love, like not existing outside of that very moment. that's what being a tennis player means to her. but she never saw Patrick as a tennis player, because he didn't fit her theory of what tennis is, he used it as a means to express himself.
so, despite doing everything correctly and making all the right choices, she loses the one thing she loves most in the world and Patrick just keeps playing, despite going against everything she's ever said. the world keeps turning without her, tennis didn't lose her, she lost tennis. and Patrick gets to have the only thing in the world she wants, a tennis career, uninterrupted.
but there's Art. and Art is a tennis player, reluctantly so. Art still isn't better than she was, but he's her hope of having a tennis career at this point. but he's not the best. she's trained him endlessly to become the best and he's won many titles with her help, but he's still not the best. she wants a win at the Open, he wants a reserved life with her and their daughter. because Art loves Tashi more than Art has ever loved tennis, but Tashi will never love Art as much as she loves tennis.
Art is reasonable when he tells Tashi he wants to retire and doesn't want to be 40 years old still doing this because he doesn't know when to quit. it is embarrassing. and Tashi echoes this sentiment to Patrick just the day before, but she can't agree with it. she knows that if she could, she would fight tooth and nail to play tennis again and be the best there ever was, age be damned. she can't accept that that isn't what Art wants.
but it is what Patrick wants. and there they are, aligning again. even when she is so incensed by his proposal of her becoming his coach, she walks off angrily tucking his phone number into her pant pocket. she can't let go, and neither can he. because Patrick is tennis, and he doesn't quit.
to Tashi, he is the fire of the game. he is the relationship and the feeling of being in love. when she's with him it feels like they're the only two people in the world, like they don't exist. it's why she's so easily wrapped up in his whirlwind despite the many years they go without seeing each other. he's her first love. just as tennis is her true love. he's the only person who sees tennis the way she does, though she would never admit it. nobody can get as wrapped up in the love of the game as they do, and they love and hate each other for it.