Challengers Attempts to Challenge Jules and Jim in the Love Triangle Genre

In what is now surely the “instant classic” movie poster for Challengers, there is an illustrated version of Tashi Duncan (Zendaya)—her hair cropped short—wearing sunglasses that reflect two tennis-playing men, Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor) and Arthur “Art” Donaldson (Mike Faist), in each lens. A faint hint of a devious smirk on her face, everything about the poster suggests that she’s not only the “puppetmaster” of these two white boys, but also someone who gets a perverse (and sexual) thrill out of watching them compete with each other…specifically over (tennis) courting her favor (and yes, Challengers is now easily among the best “tennis movies,” complete with a Venus Williams nod of approval [sorry King Richard]). 

Director Luca Guadagnino, who perfected the art of homoerotic repression constantly about to bubble to the surface in 2017’s Call Me By Your Name, does so to an even more sophisticated and nuanced degree here. With a script penned by playwright Justin Kuritzkes (who also happens to be married to Past Lives writer-director Celine Song), the barbing nature of the dialogue is mirrored not only by the high-octane back and forth on the tennis court, but also the high-octane soundtrack—provided by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross—to match. Even during moments when audiences wouldn’t typically expect…namely, during tense scenes of dialogue where the sparring is done with words instead of rackets. And oh, how there are so many tense scenes that make it irresistible for Guadagnino to use the Reznor/Ross-produced music (which, at times, sounds like it was made by New Order). Not that there aren’t plenty of other moments when “normal” music is used, too. Specifically to indicate what year of the 2000s it is. Even though, when Tashi first comes up to Patrick and Art’s hotel room, and it’s supposed to be 2006, Blood Orange’s “Uncle ACE” is playing in the background—a song that didn’t come out until 2013. But “whatever,” one supposes…guess it’s all about the “mood” and not “historical accuracy” (just ask the music supervisors on Saltburn and Madame Web). Earlier in their pursuit, when Patrick and Art home in on Tashi at a party thrown in her honor on Long Island, Nelly’s “Hot in Herre” is playing like it’s 2002. 

When we get to 2007, other 00s-era bops include Blu Cantrell’s 2001 single, “Hit ‘Em Up Style (Oops!)” and Lily Allen’s 2006 smash, “Smile” (which plays faintly in the background of the cafeteria at Stanford while Tashi and Art have lunch together). It seems Guadagnino isn’t as interested in matching the music to the year when we enter 2010 and beyond, with the film commencing in August of 2019 before it flashes back to thirteen years earlier and then keeps flip-flopping in between certain years prior. From the beginning, though, it’s made clear that the real relationship—the core one—is between Patrick and Art. In 2006, they play together as “Fire and Ice” (though it’s never said which one is fire and which ice—hair color-wise, Art would be fire and Patrick ice, but personality-wise, each man can be both…“bi,” if you will).

Their feelings of love beyond friendship are immediately conveyed in the way they embrace one another on the court after winning a game of doubles. Later on, as they walk through the tournament eating hot dogs (a very specific food choice) together, they geek out about their passion for tennis before settling into the audience stand to watch a match. It is at this point that Patrick starts to talk up Tashi, calling her the “hottest woman I’ve ever seen” (cue Katy Perry singing, “California gurls/We’re undeniable/Fine, fresh, fierce/We got it on lock”). Art has no idea what he’s talking about until Tashi steps onto the court at that very moment and proceeds to do some sensual stretches before making the game her bitch. 

Art is now convinced about going to the party on Long Island to try to talk to her. And they do. They wait all night, until everyone else is leaving, to really talk to her. During their first proper conversation together, Tashi tells Patrick and Art that every tennis match is like being in a relationship with someone. And the audience gets to watch it all unfold. She seems to direct this metaphor more toward Patrick, who she thinks hasn’t yet learned what tennis really is yet, despite being a better player than Art. Indeed, Patrick had agreed to let Art win the match the following day until Tashi shows up in their hotel room and plants the seed of competition in their mind by saying that she’ll only give her number to the boy who wins the match the next day. So it is that a shift in Patrick and Art’s dynamic occurs. Where once they were on an even playing field with little source of conflict, Tashi is the wrench thrown into their formerly repressed homoeroticism. But she brings it out in them when, during a “three-way” kiss, it doesn’t take long for it to become a two-way between Patrick and Art, who have to be reminded that Tashi is even still there when she demands, “Stop.” She then chooses to go no further because, as she puts it, “I’m not a homewrecker.” A “half-joke” with more truth in it than not. For Patrick and Art are in love, and Tashi is essentially breaking up the purity of that love with her introduction as a presence to compete for. The Patrick/Art rapport is, needless to say, one that mirrors the Jules/Jim one as described by the narration, “Jules and Jim’s friendship had no equivalent in love. They delighted together in the smallest things. They accepted their differences with tenderness. From the start, everyone called them Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.”

As the audience watches the drama of Challengers unfurl over these ten-plus years (intercutting back and forth like a tennis ball in the timeline), it always seemed Art wanted Tashi because Patrick did, and because “winning” her would somehow prove he had “superior game.” What’s more, in its psychologically fraught way, being with Tashi is a means to become even closer to him…to figuratively “cross swords” (instead of just rackets) by having entered the same woman. Tashi’s eventual leaning toward Art, despite being with Patrick (who won the match that day in ‘06 in order to gain her number) first, is a direct result of what Patrick said to her when they eventually broke up: she wanted someone to boss around, to be her “fan,” not her peer. In short, she wanted a whipping boy. But she also wanted someone like Patrick, too. Someone who pushes back and is unpredictable—fiery. Essentially, she does need and want both of them because she can’t get their respective personalities in just one man. And while she might seem like the alpha throughout the sizzling narrative, her formation at the top of the triangle betrays the reality that, without her, Patrick and Art would still go on as friends-bordering-on-lovers anyway. Were it not for her, as a matter of fact, they would have remained friends instead of “breaking up.”

It is in this regard that Challengers might present a dangerous underlying message (though not one that is anything new in our misogynistic society). And that is: whenever a woman gets involved, it ruins everything “precious” and “beautiful” about a male friendship. Invokes jealousies and pettiness that never would have arisen had it not been for “that bitch” (see also: Dawson’s Creek). There are numerous love triangle movies to this effect, not least of which is Jules and Jim. In fact, Tashi has nothing on Catherine (Jeanne Moreau), the woman whose affections Jules and Jim vie for until Jules ends up marrying and having a child with her. Which is exactly what Art does with Tashi. Except that, rather than shunning Jim from their lives, they welcome him into it. Moreover (Moreau-ver?), it’s obvious Catherine still has a thing for him, too. And Jules even wants Jim to be with her, suggesting as much when he notices how bored and lifeless she’s become.

Patrick is the Jim of the permutation in Challengers—the ballsier, less mild-mannered of the male duo that Tashi can’t help continuing to be attracted to. Even if she’s endlessly bored by each of them individually, but excited by them when they, er, come together. In turn, Patrick and Art are excited by Tashi because she is the conduit that sparks the sexual charge between them (this most overtly manifested during the hotel kissing scene when she only briefly divides them before they end up kissing each other). 

The reason Patrick and Art are attracted to Tashi is also for the same reason Jules and Jim are attracted to Catherine: she is a “disruptor” to their calm, static “friendship.” Someone who will shake things up, make life interesting and, yes, challenge them. Sometimes to be better, but, more often than not, to be the worst versions of themselves. Which, again, doesn’t exactly serve as a great PSA for women. Forever painted as “manipulative” and “calculated.” But at least in Challengers, Tashi doesn’t end up killing Patrick—so that’s progress on the toxicity front. Regardless of whether or not one sees Challengers as a monogamy or polyamory story, a gay or a straight one.