David R. Walker

Posts Tagged ‘Mike Faist’

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.

West Side Story

Director: Steven Spielberg

Cast: Rachel Zegler, Ansel Elgort, Corey Stoll, Rita Moreno, David Alvarez, Ariana Debose, Brian d’Arcy James, Mike Faist

Film Rating 9.5 out of 10

Running time: 2 hours and 36 minutes

Oscar winning director Steven Spielberg’s cinematic adaptation of West Side Story is truly phenomenal.

A vibrant, beautifully filmed remake of the 1961 film which won 10 Oscars back then and is going to sweep the board at Oscar season in 2022. With a beautiful script by Tony Kushner, the multi award winning playwright who penned the 1990 AIDS drama Angels in America, West Side Story tells the story of two rival teenage street gangs in New York City in 1957, as their neighbourhoods are going to be torn down, to make way for the building of the now impressive Lincoln Theatre on the edge of Manhattan and Harlem.

More significantly West Side Story is a contemporary adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet with all the themes of forbidden love, the individual versus society and the inevitability of fate, violence and sexual desire. Impressively, director Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story is beautifully shot, with vibrant colour saturation, authentic production design and choreography and dance numbers that will dazzle the audiences and then pull them into the fate of the two star crossed lovers: Tony superbly played by Ansel Elgort (The Goldfinch, Baby Driver, The Fault in Our Stars) and Broadway star turned film actress Rachel Zegler who plays the beautiful Puerto Rican girl Maria.

In a genius stroke of casting, Rita Moreno who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in the 1961 version of West Side Story is cast as Tony’s Puerto Rican boss Valentina, who also steals the show.

West Side Story sensitively addresses the contemporary issues facing most industrialized cities today: gentrification, turf warfare, gang violence, xenophobia and systemic racism with a flamboyance and a style which is both insightful and entertaining.

As Tony and Maria meet at a dance off in a beautiful colour saturated scene highly representative of the opulent Capulet Ball scene in director Baz Luhrmann’s 1997 William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, their fate is sealed forever, as Tony, a Polish ex-con falls helplessly in love with the gorgeous Maria a young Puerto Rican teenager who makes a living cleaning plush department stores by night .

From the beautiful balcony scene, with washing flying in the moonlit night, Tony climbs up to Maria’s apartment and professes undying love for her despite their opposing cultural backgrounds and that they both come from rival gangs which are fighting over a territory which will soon be demolished.

Representative of Tybalt, Maria’s hot headed brother Bernardo is played with all the machismo and bravado of a young gang leader by David Alvarez. Mercutio is represented on the other end by Riff played by another Broadway star Mike Faist, a dynamic fast talking hothead and best friend of Tony who refuses to back down against the threat of violence.

Ariana DeBose (The Prom, Hamilton) also shines in a riveting performance as Bernando’s girlfriend Anita and mentor to Maria and deserves an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

As a film, West Side Story is truly remarkable, from the beautifully choreographed dance numbers to the stunning costumes, to the authenticity of recreating New York City in 1957, as this magical city was transforming into a new modern metropolis of the 1960’s. The film is shot with luminescent cinematography by Polish director of photography Janusz Kaminski who won Oscars for Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan.

Once again Oscar winning director of Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan, Steven Spielberg directs a flawless film, from the way that the dance numbers are set up, to the editing and production design as he effortlessly recaptures all the vibrancy and violence of a forbidden love torn apart by rival gangs, gentrification and systemic racism.

West Side Story gets a film rating of 9.5 out of 10 and is real cinematic gem, a truly brilliant film with a superb script by Tony Kushner and a cast that is as authentic as they are talented.

This 21^st century retelling of a classic musical is highly recommended viewing and remains as relevant today as it did back in 1961.