Challengers is, undoubtedly, the greatest tennis movie yet made.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 5, 2024

It’s likely to frustrate a lot of viewers with its seeming lack of closure. And I’m going to stubbornly claim that the film’s furious conclusion is, in fact, perfect closure if you’re tracking what the movie is really about, what it values most.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Aug 5, 2024

The way the story is framed makes it hard to penetrate. It’s riveting at moments and maddening at others, unsure of exactly what it wants to be and, most importantly, who’s actually meant to be its protagonist.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Jul 27, 2024

Challengers is a unique vision from a talented filmmaker. It’s far from his most daring work, but its over-the-top self-indulgence makes for a surprisingly entertaining watch.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Jul 25, 2024

Maybe it’s because a tennis ball doesn’t offer the same level of softness or moisture as a peach, but the attempts to make Challengers as sexy and sensual as Call Me By Your Name don’t quite come off. What does come off is pretty much everything else.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 22, 2024

It’s as if the movie is playing its own tennis match. It’s cruising along, and looks to be on its way to victory. But then along come some unforced errors ... and the tide turns. Game, set, match. Better luck next time. Still ... Zendaya is pretty great.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 21, 2024

'Challengers' moves with an impressive amount of skill. Its pacing, and especially its innovative cutting, jumping back and forth through time, make things seem constantly exciting.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 20, 2024

Challengers isn't so much a sports drama with romance in as much as it is a work of art.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 11, 2024

This movie is shrewd about male insecurity, including how men can bond over screwing one another over.

Full Review | Jul 10, 2024

Challengers simply makes you feel alive.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 9, 2024

Kurtizkes understands the inherent animalistic drive behind desire, whether it be for love or ambition.There may not be a more successful attempt on screen in recent times to illustrate how there is and never will be a greater aphrodisiac than competition

Full Review | Jul 9, 2024

Challengers might not be the tennis movie you expect, but it’s the tennis movie Guadagnino wanted us to see and we are totally here for that. Tense, sharp and extremely sexy, it tastes just as delicious as it looks.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 7, 2024

What really elevated the film was its bone-rattling score, mesmerizing cinematography, and the undeniable chemistry of its leads.

Full Review | Jul 5, 2024

Whether it's that he's by far the best actor of the trio or Kuritzkes was just able to write one of his characters light-years better than the others, O'Connor's transformation into a trickster spoiler provides the suspense and allure necessary to invest.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Jul 5, 2024

Tennis is just a metaphor for sex, with each serve, volley, and grunt representing the push-pull of the movie’s central threesome. Love is a losing proposition in tennis, but in “Challengers,” it’s everything.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Jul 3, 2024

Luca Guadagnino brings all of his tricks and executes a film that is both entertaining & sexy.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 3, 2024

Challengers wears its bruises, but the pain is worth the winning result. It is one of the year’s sexiest and most exciting films, and a new commercial high point for one of cinema’s most sensuous auteurs.

Full Review | Original Score: 8.5/10 | Jul 3, 2024

It’s not quite as assured or mature in its depiction of game-playing as a life’s work, but its frothy charms are as compelling as they are exasperating. Exciting, knotty, over-determined, desperate and high on its own supply. Just like its characters.

Full Review | Jul 1, 2024

Nobody does fleshy uncertainty like Luca Guadagnino. And he’s found a great, razor-sharp script that lends itself to his gifts for vibrancy and internalized drama, as well as longtime cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom’s artistry with light.

Full Review | Jun 30, 2024

Everything in this movie is firing on all cylinders. Amazing performances, incredible soundtrack, impeccably shot. Pure cinema.

Full Review | Jun 26, 2024