Are we still talking about Challengers?
#whoremembers
To answer my question, well yes! Why wouldn’t we still be talking about Challengers? This should go without saying of course, but this is simply not a safe space for Challengers haters. God forbid bisexuals have hyper-fixations. Personally, I physically can’t go a day without talking about this movie so I’m making it everyone’s problem and using its one-year anniversary as my excuse.
To start, we all remember where we were when the Challengers trailer blessed our eyes for the first time — the three-way makeout, Zendaya’s evil grin, the “S & M” needledrop, a sneak peek at the tennis ball POV, “I’m taking such good care of my little white boys.” Something shifted. The world got a lot more bisexual and cinema got a lot more horny. Sometimes I micro-dose a Challengers rewatch just by rewatching this trailer. I truly owe the trailer editor my life.
Then came the legendary, instantly iconic Challengers press tour. I was tired just watching this unfold online from the comfort of my bed and my sweatpants, but Zendaya came through like always. She woke up day after day in country after country for weeks on end serving like her life depended on it. It was another Law Roach masterclass in method dressing with racket motifs, tennis ball details, and skirts galore. Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor were there too, I guess. Bless their hearts.
After much antici…pation, Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers was released in theaters on April 26, 2024. I had no notes. I still have no notes. I think Christopher Nolan should be taking notes on the nonlinear timeline here, but that’s a conversation for another day.
Safe to say “Are we still talking about tennis?” changed my life. An extended metaphor that only a madman like Guadagnino could pull off with the help of Zendaya and her little white boys, Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor. A movie where everything, and I mean everything, is a tennis metaphor from the dialogue and relationships to the editing, shot composition, and score, all of which makes rewatches all the sweeter. The tension here (in all ways) is flying off the charts — the flowing skirts, the thigh grips, the bites, the dripping sweat. “I’d let her fuck me with a racket.” “You screamed…when you hit the winner.” Bubbling tension builds up to such a satisfying climax that you leave feeling like you could run a marathon. Witnessing that ending for the first time and every time, I felt like I had a feral crush on a film reel and had certainly never felt more bi in my life.
Not to mention, a lesser director would have left the queerness to subtext, but not Luca “I think every great movie is gay” Guadagnino, and for that, I am forever grateful. Personally, I believe he might just be the chosen one to receive the torch for “freakiest director” from the freak himself, Francis Ford Coppola. I am watching this space and extremely seated for whatever he cooks up next.
I don’t know what more I could possibly say about this movie. It’s a shot of dopamine in the messiest love triangle of the year with a Nine Inch Nails synth soundtrack to match. The girls and gays that get it, get it. May God bless the dinosaurs that died to make the fossil fuel that was treated to become petrol in the cars that took Luca Guadagnino, Justin Kuritzkes, Josh O’Connor, Mike Faist, and Zendaya’s moms to the hospitals to give birth to them.
Of course, Challengers lives on not only in our endless rewatches, but in our memes as well. My Challengers meme folder is incredibly extensive, so I’ve picked out a few of my precious favorites to share with you all.
Unfortunately, Challengers blanked on Oscar nominations morning. I hate when people use the word “snubbed” because it’s so often misused, but this was a true snub. It’s that good. Even if acting nominations were never realistically happening, Justin Kuritzkes should have easily secured an original screenplay nomination (September 5 got one instead…really?) and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross should have swept the score and song categories. Biphobia is unfortunately very real. In a just world, Challengers swept in every category, but I regret to inform you that we do not live in that world.
I’m not one to talk about cultural impact. I’m a staunch Avatar defender so “cultural impact” is a term often used against me. However, I truly believe Challengers cultural impact at this point goes far beyond anything an Oscar nomination would have done for it. Everyone and the mother either has or wants an “I Told Ya” shirt. If Margot Robbie has taught us anything, it’s that a staple Halloween costume is the peak of cultural impact. The score went triple platinum in the earbuds of every cinephile with taste (special shoutout to “Yeah x10”). Churros and bananas are now forever associated with the mouths of Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist. Threesomes are back on the big screen if Mickey 17 has anything to say about it, though I do agree that eventually one of these films needs to fully commit and go beyond just the makeout. I unfortunately did not attend the Challengers lookalike contest in LA, but I love that it happened. By the way, what ever happened to lookalike contests? Why do you guys hate fun? Did we just collectively decide to stop holding them after the election? Are we just holding them in our bedrooms now? Someone better look into this so I can get back to finding the love of my life by looking confused at a Cillian Murphy lookalike contest.
Most importantly, Challengers brought back bisexual cinema in a big way. It’s always been here, Guadagnino’s own Bones and All included, but it’s fully back. More boys kissing, more girls kissing, more boys and girls kissing. Let the bisexuals have hobbies again. Someone get Tom Hardy’s agent on the phone so he can help cook up bisexual cinema’s final boss.
I’m also going to tap into my cinephile bag for a second and recommend that any and all Challengers fans watch Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train which is also about tennis and bisexuals. What a coincidence! I’m a self-proclaimed Hitchcock connoisseur and that film is one of my favorites of his. It's everything I love about Hitchcock paired with an impeccably tight script that is very Billy Wilder-coded in terms of its comedy and wit. And if you love a good (movie) climax, boy oh boy, does Strangers on a Train have one for you. Bisexual stories matter! They just matter!
Challengers nation will never die as long as I have something to say about it. If Challengers has ten fans, then I am one of them. If Challengers has only one fan, then that is me. If Challengers has no fans, then that means I am no longer on this earth. If the world is against Challengers, then I am against the world. In Luca Guadagnino, we trust.
what about team Art4Patrick
So glad to see fellow challengers-pilled people on substack. As much as I wanted challengers to be recognized by the academy, it has done something greater and much more impactful. It has cemented itself into a defining pop culture moment of this decade and I am sure will be regarded as nothing short of a cult classic in the years to come. Also why would the LGBTQ+ community have to forgive Patrick Zweig? he did nothing wrong.