Challengers Is The Best Movie Of 2024 (So Far)

Challengers is the best movie of 2024 (so far). Yeah, the trailers for it are super sussy. But honestly, what do you expect from modern Hollywood? Markerters always try to make the movie look sussy so that perverts will want to go see it. When I first saw the trailer for this movie, I expected it to be dumb and cheesy. I didn't expect to ever watch it. Suddenly, this movie started getting amazing reviews, with some people calling it a masterpiece. This shocked me, and it made me curious to check it out. I was confused as to why some people were calling the sussy Zendaya tennis movie a masterpiece. And now after watching it, I can safely say that this is indeed a masterpiece. This movie impressed me in so many ways. Let's start off with the cinematography;

I have never seen a movie look the way this movie does. This movie uses camera work that you'd usually find in an action movie, but instead it is used for drama. This sounds cheesy, but the movie manages to pull it off so well. It makes romantic drama seem as if the world depended upon it. There are many shots in this movie that are straight up impressive and innovative. There is this one part where while characters are playing tennis, we see the tennis ball's point of view, and they used almost no CGI to pull this off. Again, this makes a very simple activity like playing tennis and makes it seem world ending. The tennis scenes in this movie were shot extremely well and broke the boundaries of what a sports movie could be. The cinematography in this movie is iconic and will go down in history, which is the same with the score;

This movie's score is not only catchy and fun to listen to, but it impacts the movie in ways that I have never heard a movie score do in my life. The score to this movie is essentially a bunch of trap and house type beats. You'd think that they play only during tennis matches or dance scenes, but nope. They play beats during some of the most intense and dramatic scenes of the movie. Characters will be having a big argument and it will be playing beats in the background. This might sound like it would be tone deaf, but it absolutely works. I don't know how or why, but hearing beats during these dramatic scenes somehow adds to them. It is very experimental and risky to do this, but I am so glad they made the score like this because of how well it works. The movie was composed by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, who also composed last year's TMNT: Mutant Mayhem. For two years in a row, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have composed the best score of the year. The next thing I want to talk about is the writing;

This movie's story is told in a non linear narrative. One scene will be told in 2019, the next in 2006, then again 2019, again 2006, and so on. The way the scenes are structured makes the movie feel like one big tennis match. Information will be given to us in 2019, but then we will be shot back to 2006 to explain that information, then we will be shot back to 2019 to counter the explanation to the info, then back to 2006 to explain something else, etc. The way this movie is structured is not only fitting because this movie is about tennis, but it makes the movie so damn engaging. There will be something mysterious that happens in 2019, and it will leave you confused and wanting to know more. Then the movie will explain this in 2006, but it will lead to new questions, which are answered back in 2019. There is not a second of this movie where I wasn't gripped and wanting to know what would happen next.

Along with this engaging plot, the characters were all likable. Zendaya's character is constantly doing things that negatively impact the two leads of the movie, but you never hate her because her decisions usually make sense. And when they don't make sense, you still understand it because the character's flaws are clearly explained. This movie is at its core a love triangle between three tennis players, yet you are never rooting for one person in particular. You always want everyone to be happy in the end, even if one person gets the girl and the other doesn't. The love triangle itself is very well written and engaging. Again, the trailer makes this movie look like a sussy threesome movie, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. There is one scene where the leads accidentally kiss Zendaya's character at the same time, but then the scene quickly ends after that. There is not one sex scene in this entire movie, which really surprised me given how the trailers made it look. Instead it focuses on the character's relationships with one another and the drama that comes from a love triangle. Every line of dialogue impacts the plot or serves some thematic purpose. The arguments and conversations in this movie were always just as engaging as the tennis scenes were. There are points in the movie where I genuinely felt the sorrow and angst of the characters. The writing is absolutely amazing, my complements to Justin Kuritzkes.

Challengers has a bad reputation because of the marketing, but it is truly a gripping modern classic. I hope that more people in the future will see this movie as it is rather than what the trailers make it seem like. Now, if you excuse me, I'm going to go play some pickleball.

10/10