Young, attractive, wealthy people trying to win tennis matches and deciding who they want to screw. That's this movie in a nutshell.
These people are tedious, and I didn't care at all about how any of their conflicts were resolved. Zendaya has some appeal, but I'm not sure yet whether or not she has any real acting chops. Mike Faist gives the film's best performance. He and Zendaya have some chemistry, which helps. But Zendaya and Josh O'Connor, who plays the third in this love triangle, have none, so their tempestuous, on-again-off-again affair isn't convincing.
The thing that torpedoes "Challengers" is that it has no erotic charge at all. It's all supposed to be so sexy and hot, and it needed to be for me to care about anything happening, but it isn't.
And the film is too long, though it wouldn't have been if they had cut out all the slo-mo, which seriously probably adds a good half hour to the running time.
Grade: B-
These people are tedious, and I didn't care at all about how any of their conflicts were resolved. Zendaya has some appeal, but I'm not sure yet whether or not she has any real acting chops. Mike Faist gives the film's best performance. He and Zendaya have some chemistry, which helps. But Zendaya and Josh O'Connor, who plays the third in this love triangle, have none, so their tempestuous, on-again-off-again affair isn't convincing.
The thing that torpedoes "Challengers" is that it has no erotic charge at all. It's all supposed to be so sexy and hot, and it needed to be for me to care about anything happening, but it isn't.
And the film is too long, though it wouldn't have been if they had cut out all the slo-mo, which seriously probably adds a good half hour to the running time.
Grade: B-