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Luca Guadagnino

Zendaya, Josh O'Connor, Mike Faist, Darnell Appling, Bryan Doo, Shane T Harris

Justin Kuritzkes

Pascal Pictures, Why Are You Acting? Productions, Frenesy Film, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Taglines: Her game. Her rules.

Tennis player turned coach Tashi has taken her husband, Art, and transformed him into a world-famous Grand Slam champion. To jolt him out of his recent losing streak, she signs him up for a "Challenger" event — close to the lowest level of pro tournament — where he finds himself standing across the net from his former best friend and Tashi's former boyfriend.

Reviews:

Author: Geronimo1967
Tennis playing "Art" (Mike Faist) and "Patrick" (Josh C'Connor) have been best mates since school but there's a fly in the ointment of their bromance. That's the upcoming superstar that is "Tashi" (Zendaya) - whom both of the boys take a shine to. A shared beer in their hotel room and she declares she's no home wrecker - but as this story progresses we arrive at a scenario that sees her own career aspirations tragically thwarted and rather vicariously transferred onto now husband "Art" whilst her ex-boyfriend "Patrick" and he now barely speak. Having won six slams, "Art" is running out of steam - but his unfulfilled wife is not ready for him to quit. Can he win an elusive US Open? For that matter, can he even win a confidence-building Challenger event in which he must beat his former friend. It's this match that serves as the conduit for the story as we dance about the timelines delivering a story that I felt was rife with pretty toxic ambition. Zendaya handles her really ambiguous, sometimes quite cruel and selfish, role here real quite unnervingly well as Luca Guadagnino allows all three actors to develop characteristics that vary from the engaging to the detestable - and he lets us be the judge. They are all flawed individuals spurned on by hormones, desire and the highly charged and competitive nature of their touring existences makes for quite a compelling look at just what makes these guys tick! After his appearance in "Mothering Sunday" (2021) O'Connor has no issues getting naked, the others prove a little more restrained as the sexual chemistry becomes more palpable and destructive and by the denouement - well who knows what will happen? I like that uncertainty - and I know what I wanted to occur... If you can't like yourself, can anyone else?