Film: Challengers           
Cast: Zendaya, Mike Faist, Josh O'Connor, Darnell Appling, Bryan Doo, Shane T Harris, Nada Despotovich, John McShane
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Rating: 3/5
Runtime: 131 min

A modern take on Chaucer’s ‘The Knight’s Tale’, Luca Guadagnino’s tennis psychodrama is generously ladled with overt sexual interplay. The film makes every tennis match look sexual and every conversation thereof, a challenge.

We meet the three main characters at a low-point in their lives. Tennis superstar who turned coach because of a career threatening injury, Tashi Duncan (Zendaya) has taken on the responsibility of coaching her husband, Art, and has since transformed him into a world-famous Grand Slam champion. Of late though, he has been on a losing streak - so to jolt him enough to put up a big fight, she signs him up for a lowly “Challenger” event and he finds himself standing across the net from his former best friend and Tashi’s former boyfriend Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor).