A Lot or a Little?
What you will—and won't—find in this movie.
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Positive Messages
a little
A cautionary tale about conditional love and what happens when love and partnership are tied to success and competition. Demonstrates how much professional sports, like tennis, demand of competitors and how easy it is to fall from grace. Themes also include teamwork and perseverance.
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Positive Role Models
a little
Tashi is determined, ambitious, and talented. She's organized and intelligent but can also be manipulative and isn't a particularly present mother. Art is loyal and devoted as a husband and father. Patrick is impulsive and passionate but also lies and plays mind games. All main characters act selfishly at times, although Art does so less often.
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Diverse Representations
a little
Other than main character Tashi (Zendaya, who has one Black and one White parent), the cast is largely White. Supporting characters are of Asian descent (Bryan Doo) and Black (Darnell Appling). Tashi has most of the power and agency in the story.
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Violence & Scariness
a little
Tashi's knee is irrevocably injured in a loud, close-up way during a tennis match. One character slaps another across the face. Two characters push each other. A character spits at another character. Art has surgical scars on his body and has a team of personal physical therapists.
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Sex, Romance & Nudity
a lot
Sexual undercurrent to all three major relationships: Tashi and Art, Tashi and Patrick, and Art and Patrick. Several make-out and sex scenes that range from passionate kissing and fondling (with obvious erections through shorts) to foreplay on a college dorm bed to sex in hotel rooms and cars. Conversation about how two young men masturbat*d in the same room together when they were 12. Both suggestive and nonsexual full and partial nudity (penises, butts) in men's shower scenes.
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Language
a lot
Frequent strong language includes "f--k," "f---ing," "bitch," "d--k," "ass," "a--hole," "p---y," "Jesus f--king Christ," "screwing." "Jesus" as an exclamation.
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Products & Purchases
some
Many visible brands, including Adidas, Head, Nike, Uniqlo, Apple, iPhone, MacBook, BB&T, Pepsi, co*ke, Wilson, Gatorade, Prince, Churro's, Camel, Fila, and Dunkin'.
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Drinking, Drugs & Smoking
some
Underage teens and adults smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol.
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Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Challengers is a sexy sports dramedy starring Zendaya as Tashi, a tennis prodigy who meets best friends/doubles partners Art (Mike Faist) and Patrick (Josh O'Connor) at a juniors championship, kicking off a lusty love triangle that still impacts all three of them 13 years later. Directed by Call Me by Your Name's Luca Guadagnino, the movie has plenty of the filmmaker's signature eroticism, including passionate kissing, sex scenes, adultery, full-frontal nudity in locker room shower scenes, and close-ups of bodies in motion. In addition to the nudity and sex, the movie has frequent strong language ("f--k," "s--t," "p----y," "a--hole," etc.), drinking and smoking (by both teens and adults), and a whole lot of tennis, athletic, and electronics product placement (Head, Wilson, Adidas, Nike, Fila, Apple, etc.). There are also some nasty sports injuries and skirmishes between characters. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails.
What's the Story?
CHALLENGERS is a romantic sports drama about a love triangle with roots in the world of elite tennis. At a juniors championship, doubles champions and best friends Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) and Patrick Zweig (Josh O'Connor) meet phenom Tashi Duncan (Zendaya) and are both immediately smitten. After the trio enjoy a night of drinking, smoking, and kissing, Tashi can't decide which of the boys she'll give her number to. So she announces that she'll grant it to the winner of their singles' match the next day. Thus begins a love triangle that twists and turns through college and beyond. Fast-forward 13 years, and Tashi is now Art's wife and coach, getting him through a post-surgical comeback season. During a seemingly inconsequential tournament in New Rochelle, New York, Patrick, whose star never rose to the same heights as the Donaldsons', discovers that he could face Art in the finals. And seeing the ambitious Patrick again stirs unexpected feelings in calculating Tashi, who seems to want Art to win more than Art wants it for himself.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about whether there are any role models in Challengers. If so, what character strengths do they display?
Discuss the enduring popularity of love triangles as a narrative device. How does the relationship between the two main male characters add nuance to this particular triangle?
What do you think happens at the end of the movie? Who ends up with whom?
How does this compare to other sports-centric movies you've seen? Do you consider it a romance, a sports drama, or a mix?
Movie Details
- In theaters: April 26, 2024
- Cast: Zendaya, Josh O'Connor, Mike Faist
- Director: Luca Guadagnino
- Inclusion Information: Gay directors, Middle Eastern/North African directors, Female actors, Black actors, Multiracial actors
- Studio: Amazon MGM Studios
- Genre: Drama
- Topics: Sports and Martial Arts, Friendship
- Character Strengths: Perseverance, Teamwork
- Run time: 131 minutes
- MPAA rating: R
- MPAA explanation: language throughout, some sexual content and graphic nudity
- Last updated: April 25, 2024
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