Challengers 2024
Luca Guadagnino's tennis love triangle, and the movie Sean and Amanda call their agreed-upon favorite of the year so far. Zendaya (reportedly paid $10 million) plays Tashi, a junior champion turned coach whose career-ending injury redirects her ambition into her husband Art (Mike Faist) and his old doubles partner Patrick (Josh O'Connor). The film jumps around 2006 to 2019, cutting between the three as tennis stands in for sex. They loved the Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross house-music score playing over dialogue, the class-and-money subtext, the food-and-consumption imagery (churros, a Dunkin' egg sandwich), and the ball- and racket-POV shots in the final match. Sean called it a four-and-a-half, Amanda a five as an experience; both compared its structure to Bull Durham and expect it to land on their year-end lists.
