Help! Challengers changed my brain chemistry and now I’m buying a tennis racket

Now seeking applications for a broody blonde and cocky brunette.

I saw Challengers for the first time about a week and a half ago now while in the city for a less-than-48-hour trip with my good friend Ella.

We’d come to NYC for a live podcast discussing Taylor Swift’s latest studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, and after realizing that a wedding might keep me from seeing Challengers until after opening weekend – I was admittedly more pressed about this than I probably should’ve been – we tacked an early showing of Luca Guadagnino’s tennis flick to our night.

As we left our showing, walking out of the Dolby Theater at AMC Lincoln Square 13, in somewhat of a trance, we realized our night had a theme:

Messy situationships involving any combo of 1) a girl boss (Tashi Duncan/Taylor Swift), 2) a smug, depressed blonde boy (Art Donaldson/Joe Alwyn) and 3) an unkempt, asshole* with curly brown hair (Patrick Zwieg/Matty Healy) almost always ends in sexy disaster.

I couldn’t stop thinking about Challengers after that initial viewing, and for someone who’s love language is sharing movies with my friends, I was grateful to have watched with Ella and have at least one person to compare notes with, send memes to and anxiously wait other friends’ viewings and reviews.

I saw the movie again Tuesday night, and was just as tickled as I was in my first viewing.

While I don’t have it as my No. 1 movie of the year on my Letterboxd ranking (that spot still belongs to Dune 2 for the moment), I do think this is the movie event of the year.

I mean, it altered my brain chemistry — I am making plans to play tennis now! I bought a racket and talked to a friend who plays! I’ve never even thought about picking up the sport in my life because I feel horrible about my level of hand-eye coordination!!!!

Maybe most damning: I considered whether Josh O’Connor should supplant Tom Holland at the top of my celebrity crush power rankings because of how phenomenal he was in this movie! I don’t think I’ve ever come close to considering supplanting Tom!!!!!

From what I’ve heard from some friends and just seen on the Internet, it’s done the same to them, too.

Friend Poll No. 1: What moment in the movie made you come the closest to wanting to take up tennis?

• “I think my toxic trait is that I often see athletic people do athletic things and I think, ‘I’m athletic, I can do that,’ so truly pretty much every tennis scene had me like, ‘Haha yes, lemme try.’ — Kennedi L.

• Zendaya’s “Come on!!!!” — multiple friends

• “The scene where Art and Patrick are going bar for bar and Tashi is the only one moving her head back and forth.” — Jomi A.

• One did not feel the desire to pick it up because of childhood trauma from individual sports (but has agreed to play with me nonetheless).

Additionally, Challengers just has that movie of the year energy. It’s well-paced, it’s sexy, it has a great score. It stars one of the biggest celebrities of our time and two up-and-comers who are certain to be mega-stars (despite neither of them wanting that level of fame) in the next few years.

I’m going to be thinking about it until the next huge thing comes along, if anything does anytime soon. Here are some of what’s bouncing around the court in my brain, with some extra balls thrown in from friends.

*I don’t think Patrick is that big of an asshole!

The first real love triangle ever?

I’m not thinking very hard about this, but at least off the top of my head, I can’t recall another real love triangle, where each member has more than platonic feelings for the other, in media.

If I were to bet anything comes close, it was probably something on Riverdale that barely counted and was probably somewhat offensive.

We all knew there was going to be at least somewhat of a three-way in the movie (read here my initial reaction to the trailer in which I proudly got a few things right) and witnessing it in it’s entirety was great.

But I did come away trying to pin down who I thought was the anchor of the triangle. Who would it fall apart without?

Friend Poll No. 2: Who’s the middle/connector/top point in the love triangle?

Tashi: 3

Patrick: 4 (“He clearly loves both of them in different ways and is yearning for both of their affections/approval,” — Camille M.)

Art: 1

My vote is for Art because I think even though Tashi is the one who sets them up in the first place and Patrick clearly has the strongest/most equal feelings for both, it is the way Tashi and Patrick each feel about Art that affects their relationship with each other more than the other pairings do.

Patrick doesn’t want to throw the challenger final because of his respect for Art. Tashi won’t train Patrick, at least in part, because of her respect for Art. Etc. etc. etc. Also Art’s unwillingness to even talk to Patrick after Tashi’s injury disbands the true triangle for years!

And I think that aligns with the fact that it’s an emotional outburst from Art that resets the triangle and returns it to equilibrium in the final moment of the movie.

Bad behavior

Both Zendaya and Josh O’Connor have been really passionate on the press tour that Art is the villain in Challengers.

I think on the surface level, I would agree. I mean, he does the most clear manipulating in the film when he tells Tashi there’s no way Patrick loves her, and tells Patrick that Tashi isn’t looking for anything serious.

It feels a bit of a stretch, though to be honest, fun to argue, that Art therefore causes Tashi’s injury. It’s less of a stretch, though, that he causes Tashi’s and Patrick’s breakup.

What Tashi and Patrick do later in their lives is certainly immoral. I won’t write to you hear condoning cheating while you have a child.

But I do think if we’re trying to pinpoint who kicks off the bad behavior, it’s Art. Up until that point, there really hadn’t been any. A little playful manipulation by Tashi getting the boys to kiss, but nothing really other than that.

It’s Art’s subtle subterfuge at Stanford that sends the trio on a downhill spiral.

Friend Poll No. 3: If you had to pick a “villain” in the love triangle, who would it be?

Tashi: 5

Patrick: 0

Art: 2

“If I could give a percentage, I would say 20% Patrick, 50% Tashi (because she knew everything at every turn while the other guys were in the dark) and 30% Art,” — Darian S.

As the poll shows, a lot of people came away picking Tashi as their villain, albeit most of them saying they didn’t think there was one but saying they would choose her since I made them.

Tashi is certainly not a character free of sin — none of them are — but I think her bad behavior is more a product of her inability to cope with her misfortune than her purposefully trying to hurt either of the boys.

And Patrick, well, Patrick says it: “I’ve never been confused about the fact that I’m a piece of shit.”

If “L’ouef” has one fan…

I’ve seen many a meme about listening to “Yeah x10,” “Brutalizer,” and “Challenger: Match Point,” on repeat after leaving the theater.

Understandably, of course — Trent Reznor’s and Atticus Ross’ pulsating, club-worthy beats combined with the audio erotica-worthy grunts from Art and Patrick and the thwacks of the tennis balls is undoubtedly going to be the soundtrack of my summer. Two songs made it on my April top songs list after only a few days.

The piece of the score that I’ve been listening to nonstop, though, is “L’ouef.”

It’s the piece that plays during the beach scene preceding Tashi, Patrick and Art hooking up for the first time. It’s a scene that immediately grabbed me, not just because of the piece of score, but because the scene very much sets up a major premise in the movie (tennis is a relationship) and frames Tashi as this hot, mysterious temptress. I saw someone online say she looks like a siren in the scene, and I’d have to agree.

What’s interesting, too, is that the translation of “L’ouef” is “The Egg.”

That scene on the beach establishes what the relationship between the trio is going to be for the rest of their lives. It sets things in motion. It’s “The Egg” or the embryo of their relationships.

I believe the piece, or at least part of it, is used again toward the end of the movie as the trio inches back closer to equilibrium and the real tennis, that’s like a relationship, that Tashi talks about in the beach scene, is played.

It stands out so much from the rest of the score, and also reminds me a lot of Reznor’s and Ross’ work on The Social Network score, which I love as well.

Friend Poll No. 4: What’s your favorite piece from the score?

Brutalizer: 1 (“The best representation of the energy of the whole movie,” — Jake F.)

Challenger: Match Point: 3

Pull Over (aka the music in the “weird wind scene”): 2

The Signal: 2

The Points that Matter: 1

My Top 5 Hottest Scenes list

5) Tashi’s and Patrick’s Car Hookup

The way Josh O’Connor’s bare thigh takes up, like, the entire screen… something about a post-car hookup moment in media always gets me. I think about Connell and Marianne lounging in the car in the sun together in Ep. 2 of Normal People quite frequently.

4) Tashi’s and Art’s Post-Applebees Makeout

See above answer about car-related hookups. Also, the height difference here is sexy. I don’t think I’d realized how tall Mike Faist was until seeing Zendaya in those tall-ass heels and still not being quite as tall as him.

3) The Churro Scene

“You fucking snake. Honestly, I’m proud of you. I’d be doing the same thing… It’s fine, it’s exciting to see you this way. It’s what’s been missing from your tennis… It’s nice to see you lit up about something, even if it’s my girlfriend… You know this just makes it hotter for me, right?”

WHEN THEIR FACES ARE THAT CLOSE TOGETHER?!

2) The Threesome

I would respect this as other people’s No. 1. I almost put it first…

1) Tashi’s and Patrick’s Stanford Makeout-turned-Fight

… but I just fucking love the dynamic in this scene, and that shot of their faces close together, and the dialogue as they’re making out. I know it ends poorly but my god what a hot scene.

Other things to listen to/read about Challengers:

Why Is Everyone Obsessed with Josh O’Connor’s Challengers Outfits? (GQ)

Character Study: Tashi Duncan (The Ringer)

How Josh O’Connor learned to stop worrying and love playing a jerk (Rolling Stone)

Why Zendaya's 'Challengers' film featured a Greater Cincinnati Applebee's (The Cincinnati Inquirer)

‘Challengers’ Is Sexy, Sweaty, and Undeniable (The Big Pic by The Ringer)

What Happens After Art and Patrick’s Final Shot? (Vulture)

Does ‘Challengers’ Serve an Ace or a Fault? A Tennis-Specific Breakdown. (The Ringer)

Challengers: Zendaya and her tennis boys teach us a lesson about the sport (The Athletic)

Stop Erasing Zendaya’s Tashi Duncan From Challengers Because You Want New Internet Boyfriends (Teen Vogue)

(Me basking in all the “Challengers” content. Goodnight!)