Starring: Zendaya, Mike Faist, Josh O’Connor
OUR RATING: ★★★☆☆
Story: Romantic sports drama directed by Luca Guadagnino. Challengers (2024 centers on Tashi (Zendaya), a tennis player turned coach, who has transformed her husband, Art (Mike Faist), from a mediocre player into a world-famous grand slam champion. To jolt him out of his recent losing streak, she makes him play a Challenger event, close to the lowest level of tournament on the pro tour, where he finds himself standing across the net from the once-promising, now burnt-out Patrick (Josh O’Connor), his former best friend and Tashi’s former boyfriend. As their pasts and presents collide, and tensions run high, Tashi must ask herself, what will it cost to win.
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Best Challengers Quotes
Tashi Donaldson: For about fifteen seconds there, we were actually playing tennis. And we understood each other completely. So did everyone watching. It’s like we were in love. Or like we didn’t exist. We went somewhere really beautiful together.
Tashi Donaldson: [to Art] Decimate that little b**ch.
Tashi Donaldson: What do you want?
Art Donaldson: I’m going to be a tennis player.
Tashi Donaldson: [to Art] You need to start winning.
Art Donaldson: Hey. I love you.
Tashi Donaldson: I know.
Patrick Zweig: [to Art] Don’t guilt me with your dying grandmother.
Patrick Zweig: Don’t you want to meet Tashi Duncan? You don’t get it, man. You’ve never seen her in person. She’s in another league.
Patrick Zweig: [referring to Tashi] She’s going to turn her whole family into millionaires. She’ll have a fashion line, a nutritional supplement, a foundation.
Art Donaldson: [referring to Tashi] She’s a remarkable young woman.
Patrick Zweig: I know. I know, she’s a pillar of the community. I’d let her f*** me with a racket.
Tashi Donaldson: I know who you are. You’re Fire and Ice, right?
Patrick Zweig: In the flesh.
Tashi Donaldson: Which one’s which?
Patrick Zweig: What do you think?
Tashi Donaldson: I don’t want my only skill in life to be hitting a ball with a racket.
Patrick Zweig: Hitting a ball with a racket is a great way to avoid having a job.
Tashi Donaldson: You don’t know what tennis is.
Patrick Zweig: What is it?
Tashi Donaldson: It’s a relationship.
Tashi Donaldson: You both want my number?
Art Donaldson: Very much so. Yeah.
Tashi Donaldson: Okay. Well, I’m not a home wrecker.
Art Donaldson: We don’t live together.
Patrick Zweig: It’s an open relationship.
Art Donaldson: You made it sound like we wanted to f*** her in here.
Patrick Zweig: We do want to f*** her in here.
Tashi Donaldson: How often does this happen? Going after the same girl?
Patrick Zweig: Not as often as you think actually.
Art Donaldson: We usually have different types.
Tashi Donaldson: So you’re saying I should be flattered?
Art Donaldson: Well, aren’t you everybody’s type?
Tashi Donaldson: Come here.
Art Donaldson: Which one of us?
Tashi Donaldson: [to Patrick and Art] I will be watching your match tomorrow. Whoever wins can have my number.
Art Donaldson: Remember when you said you’d let me win?
Patrick Zweig: That was a lifetime ago.
Art Donaldson: What about my grandmother?
Patrick Zweig: Hope she has a f***ing stroke.
Tashi Donaldson: Art can’t see us together. He already thinks I planned this to humiliate him.
Patrick Zweig: Didn’t you?
Tashi Donaldson: Not this part.
Art Donaldson: He’s not in love with you.
Tashi Donaldson: What makes you think I want someone to be in love with me? Did I ever say I was in love with him?
Patrick Zweig: I mean, who wouldn’t be in love with you?
Tashi Donaldson: Think you might be the worst friend in the world.
Patrick Zweig: Maybe.
Tashi Donaldson: Definitely!
Patrick Zweig: [to Art] It’s nice to see you lit up about something. Even if that something is my girlfriend.
Art Donaldson: I would never do anything to get in the way of you and your girlfriend.
Patrick Zweig: [to Art] I know. It’s not your style. You’re playing percentage tennis. Waiting for me to f*** up.
Tashi Donaldson: That’s your problem. You always think you’ve won before the match is over.
Patrick Zweig: Are we talking about tennis?
Tashi Donaldson: We’re always talking about tennis.
Patrick Zweig: Can we not?
Patrick Zweig: I just don’t need you to be my coach.
Tashi Donaldson: Well, someone needs to be.
Tashi Donaldson: [to Patrick] What do you think you need from me? Honestly, what do you think you need from me? A cheerleader? A girlfriend? A f*** buddy? Like there’s plenty of girls out here that would love to be your girlfriend, okay? You’re charming. You’re talented, you got a big d**k. Just go be with one of them.
Tashi Donaldson: You’re not a member of my fan club?
Patrick Zweig: I’m your peer. I’m not your f***ing groupie. And I’m definitely not your student.
Tashi Donaldson: You think I was going to like kill myself after the injury?
Art Donaldson: No. No. I’m just glad that you didn’t quit tennis.
Tashi Donaldson: Yeah, well, unfortunately, my only skill in life is hitting a ball with a racket.
Art Donaldson: [to Tashi] After your injury, I couldn’t help but just think about what would have happened if I had beaten Patrick.
Tashi Donaldson: You never really said if you’re still in love with me or not.
Art Donaldson: Who wouldn’t be?
Art Donaldson: I really want to kiss you right now. But I’m afraid if I try, you’ll think I’m the worst friend in the world.
Tashi Donaldson: To who?
Patrick Zweig: Hey, come have a cigarette with me. I have to talk to you.
Tashi Donaldson: Yeah, I don’t smoke. And I’m not talking to you.
Patrick Zweig: [to Tashi] I want you to be my coach.
Tashi Donaldson: What?
Patrick Zweig: Imagine if you could turn Patrick Zweig into a guy who wins a Slam. I still have a season. I still have one good season, and I need you to bring it out of me. So, what do you think?
Tashi Donaldson: [as she slaps him] How f***ing dare you?
Patrick Zweig: Jesus Christ!
Tashi Donaldson: [to Patrick] You want my best piece of advice for you? Do you want me to coach you? Okay. Quit! Quit right now. Right the f*** now, quit.
Patrick Zweig: I still have a shot.
Tashi Donaldson: You’re thirty-one. You have a better shot with a handgun in your mouth.
Tashi Donaldson: And it is unforgivable that you would ask me to devote a single second of my f***ing time to help you achieve your f***ing dream. What dreams, Patrick? You never had any!
Patrick Zweig: Is that what you and Art are doing? Living the dream?
Tashi Donaldson: That is exactly what the f*** we’re doing.
Patrick Zweig: Then how come you hate him? You do. It’s obvious, you do.
Patrick Zweig: He’s ready to be dead. And you’re starting to realize you might not want to be buried with him, because who is he to you if he’s not playing tennis?
Tashi Donaldson: So that’s what you think he is to me? A racket and a d**k.
Patrick Zweig: I mean, really, why are you so angry with me? Look, I don’t buy that it’s because of Tashi, or I don’t think it’s because of what happened to her. I think maybe you’re still just really disturbed by the fact that she could’ve been into someone like me.
Art Donaldson: When we were teenagers.
Patrick Zweig: When we were teenagers.
Tashi Donaldson: [referring to her engagement ring] It’s his grandmother’s.
Patrick Zweig: How is she?
Tashi Donaldson: She died. Stroke.
Patrick Zweig: This is a challenger. I don’t need to play mind games with you.
Art Donaldson: Where do get your swagger from, man? I mean, you come in here swinging your d**k around like I’m supposed to be afraid of it. But do you realize how embarrassing it is that you are here right now?
Patrick Zweig: Not quite as embarrassing as you being here.
Art Donaldson: I’m just stopping by, man. This is where you live.
Art Donaldson: [to Patrick] I always tried to figure out what happened to you. But, you know, the more I’ve thought about it, the more I realize, it’s what didn’t happen. You never grew up.
Art Donaldson: This is a game about winning the points that matter.
Art Donaldson: Tell me it doesn’t matter. Tell me it doesn’t matter if I win tomorrow.
Tashi Donaldson: No. You tell me if it matters. You’re the professional competitor, Art. It can’t be avoiding my judgment. I’m not a nun. I’m not your mommy.
Tashi Donaldson: You can beat him.
Art Donaldson: What if I don’t? How are you going to look at me if I still can’t beat Patrick Zweig?
Tashi Donaldson: Just like this.
Art Donaldson: I’m playing for both of us, Tashi. I know that.
Tashi Donaldson: If you don’t win tomorrow, I’ll leave you. I’m serious. Does that help you?
Tashi Donaldson: I want you to lose tomorrow.
Patrick Zweig: I’m aware of that.
Tashi Donaldson: I’m asking you to lose tomorrow.
Patrick Zweig: I can’t believe you’d do this to him. I mean, f***ing me would be one thing. But this? This is unforgivable.
Tashi Donaldson: Actually, I’m being incredibly f***ing kind to the both of you right now. Okay? I’m taking such good care of my little white boys.
Tashi Donaldson: You are such a f***ing child.
Patrick Zweig: Of course I am. I spent my entire life hitting a ball with a racket.
Patrick Zweig: [to Tashi] I’ve never been confused about the fact that I’m a piece of s**t.
Patrick Zweig: You like precisely one thing about me, and it’s that I’m such a piece of s**t that I could actually see you for what you are.
Tashi Donaldson: And what is that?
Patrick Zweig: In reality? A really, really insanely hot woman.
Patrick Zweig: [after they’ve slept together] Are you sure this is what you want?
Tashi Donaldson: What else could I want? How am I supposed to know if you’re going to do it?
Patrick Zweig: You won’t.
Tashi Donaldson: Come on!