La Vie Not Rose

What an enjoyable movie, the sentiment in the theatre was pure excitement at the end of the screening. Was the music, the performances, the editing, the connections of this truly memorable triangle.

From the trailer you get that this is gonna get interesting; a love conflict between two best friends for a girl but adding the competitiveness, stress and explosive vibes of tennis. But, the way the whole story unfolds is a whole new level of achievement for Luca Guadagnino. 

There is a subtility, a natural spontaneity, insolency and, of course, charm in Josh O’Connor’s character (Patrick), a very convincing strength and even some traces of manipulation in Zendaya’s Tashi and, to circle this game of love, a mysterious air of calculation with touches of tenderness in every eye gaze of Mike Faist (Art). 

The threads of the story tangle and tangle, the emotion of the tennis match is not only there because of a match being played in real time, but it becomes a partner and an amazing parallelism of this trio’s relationship. Is complex, and everyone has their reasons, but which are they? Oh, let’s go back to the match. Even if you understand very little about the game itself, this story is about the power of winning, control, discipline, aspirations, desire… overall a very good deployment of human nature and its flows. 

All the gestures and clever pace, combined with a powerful and rampant score, make of Challengers a very much-needed experience in a cinema theatre. With rampant effects, with pure melodrama, it just gets better with every minute.

You are in Tashi’s head, but then also trying to analize Pattrick’s moves, and why you’re not reacting Art!!! All the very precise moments we get to witness in the timeline of their relationships keeps the tension, while questions keep rising literally until the last second of the movie. In fact, it’s the kind of movie where you still have a lot of questions at the end, a lots of whys keep resurging along with long scenes in your head of “what ifs”… 

That is the best part of this experience, the scrutiny on the actions of its leads. Why him and not him? And is this just about power over one or another or there is real love between A and B or A and C? That is the real challenge, deciphering the real motives and desires of these 3. 

The virtue of this very entertaining movie is taking a very simple, maybe very revisited story in the history of cinema (a love triangle), but pulling out our emotions to be part of their mindgames and be part of the dissecting of all the emotions happening in their heads and of course, in the court. 

Now, let’s get some churros or go to a rave.