Archive for the ‘Luca Guadagnino’ Category

Challengers

Director: Luca Guadagnino

Cast: Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, Mike Faist

Running Time: 2 hours and 11 minutes

Film Rating: 7.5 out of 10

To sustain a 2 hour film with just three characters in it is no mean feat. In fact Italian director Luca Gudagnino manages to maintain the pace in his latest youth obsessed film about hot young tennis stars in his new film Challengers starring Zendaya (Dune), Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist (West Side Story).

Set mainly in New Rachelle, New York and containing some flashback scenes in Atlanta, Challengers centres on a sexy ménage a trois between childhood tennis stars Art Donaldson played by Faist and Patrick Zweig superbly played by British actor Josh O’Connor (Mothering Sunday) and the formidably talented and hard edged young American tennis star Tashi Duncan wonderfully played by Zendaya.

Auteur director Luca Gudagnino makes Zendaya the centre of this stylishly aggressive sports love drama as Tashi expertly manipulates the two young men in her life as she comes between their friendship, marries one while deceiving the other.

Challengers is as much about competitive rivalry on the tennis court as it is about lust and manipulation. Zendaya acts brilliantly in a film in which her two male co-stars compliment her stylish aggression and her complex personality that makes up the tennis star Tashi Duncan.

While the location of Challengers could have been more glamourous, it really is the acting that elevates Challengers particularly from Zendaya and Josh O’Connor who plays a McEnroe type down on his luck aspiring tennis star with swagger, cockiness and charm. Josh O’Connor has the acting skills and he is beginning to be noticed as film star to watch. He is riveting in this film.

Challengers is constructed as a tennis match – the entire film follows the match between Art Donaldson and Patrick Zweig at the New Rachelle Challengers match in New York in the summer of 2019, with multiple flashbacks to earlier times in the complex relationship between the three main characters, which involves deception, manipulation and seduction.

There are some utterly superb scenes particularly the car park scene in Atlanta with a blustery gale blowing across the city as Patrick and Tashi argue about their relationship amidst a mixture of desire and animosity.

Challengers is a fascinating character study about sports stars and their ambitions. A niche sports drama about tennis in which the players talk the same language.

My one main issue with the film was the bizarre soundtrack by Oscar winning sound duo Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (The Social Network) which was techno music combined with some more sultry tunes. It wasn’t the music so much as the use of it particularly blurring out dialogue in certain pivotal scenes. The film’s original score should add to the narrative and not distract the viewers.

Challengers is a glossy, stylized film about tennis and once again Luca Guadagnino’s director’s gaze focuses on the follies and decadence of youth, not to mention the beauty and the betrayal. Like in his Oscar winning film Call Me By Your Name, the Italian director makes another stylized film about youth but without a brilliantly written screenplay by James Ivory.

Aimed at fans of Zendaya, Challengers gets a film rating of 7.5 out of 10 and is recommended viewing for those that enjoy tennis films like Wimbledon and Match Point.

Call Me by Your Name

Director:  Luca Guadagnino

Cast: Timothee Chalamet, Armie Hammer, Michael Stuhlbarg, Amira Casar, Esther Garrel, Victorie du Bois

Andre Aciman’s sensuous 1988 debut novel Call Me by Your Name is skilfully adapted into a superb screenplay by James Ivory of Merchant Ivory fame and beautifully brought to the big screen by Italian director Luca Guadagnino.

Call Me by Your Name centres on the erotic summer romance of Elio, a young Jewish Italian boy discovering the essence of his sexuality and his parents American house guest, a 24 year old American classics student Oliver wonderfully played by Armie Hammer (The Man from Uncle) in possibly his best on screen role yet, who is staying with the family in the summer of 1983 as a cultural exchange.

It is the break out performance of star Timothee Chalamet as the restless Elio which is the cinematic revelation and as he deftly centres the film in all its beauty skillfully conveying the nonchalance of youth and his perpetual desire for self-discovery.

Elio’s parents Mr Perlman played by Michael Stuhlbarg (The Shape of Water) and Annella played by Amira Casar who are a liberal and fairly affluent Italian couple who allow their only son, young Elio all the indulgences of youth.

Director Luca Guadagnino sumptuously captures the Italian country summer creating a gorgeous landscape for Elio and Oliver to indulge in an intimate and erotic affair which is tenderly portrayed without moral judgement or vulgarity, a beautiful depiction of sexual discovery and emotional resonance made poignant by the brevity of their idyllic romance.

In a particularly insightful scene between Elio and his compassionate father, Mr Perlman utters the significant line: “Nature has a cunning way of finding our weakest spot.”

Timothee Chalamet captures all the confusion and emotional insecurity of his various sexual encounters with a luminosity seldom seen in cinema today. Chalamet is indeed a star to watch out for. The luxuriant and lingering tone of the film transports audiences into a languid Italian summer, a beautiful sensuous stupor which they will find difficult to relinquish even as the closing credits appear on the screen.

Call Me by Your Name is beautifully acted particularly by its two male leads and superbly shot, making the film a mesmerizing cinematic experience. There are very few films being produced like this today and Luca Guadagnino captures that visual rarity of a first love on screen with a tenderness and beauty which is reminiscent of the Roman statue from antiquity emerging from Lake Garda.

Audiences that enjoyed the early Merchant Ivory films like Maurice and A Room with a View will love Call Me by Your Name.

This evocative film gets a rating of 9.5 out of 10 and is one of the most exquisite films I have seen aided by an equally brilliant soundtrack.