‘Challengers’ Reactions: Wide Praise For New, “Horny” Zendaya Film

The first reactions for Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers are here, with lucky attendees who got to see the Zendaya-led tennis drama early describing the film as “deeply horny”, full of “enormous bisexual energy” and “one of the year’s best films.” 

Part tennis drama and part love triangle, the film follows ex-tennis player Tashi Duncan (Zendaya) as she coaches her husband Art (Mike Faist) to beat his best friend and her ex-boyfriend Patrick (Josh O’Connor) in a match that causes sweltering tension both on and off the hard-court. 

After the lifting of the first reactions embargo, viewers took to X (formerly Twitter) to shower the film with praise. 

Zendaya is being widely celebrated for her performance in the film, with Lewis Knight of The Radio Times calling the actress a “modern Hollywood icon.” Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor appear to keep up with her, too – several tweets praise the trio of performances, with Morgan Murrell saying that she couldn’t pick a favourite. 

When the film’s trailer dropped, many fans clamoured to see some serious sexual tension between Faist and O’Connor too, and it appears those cries have been answered. User @zacidk shared the following: “Challengers was everything I wanted and more, but damn when those two white boys started kissing I lost it.” Meanwhile, WhyNow’s Maria Lattila said the film has “big, huge, ENORMOUS bisexual energy. Loved it, naturally.”

BuzzFeed’s Jarett Wieselman praised the film as “two blissful hours before culminating in one of the most electric final scenes I’ve ever experienced,” and Josh At The Movies was quick to label the film “deeply horny” while praising it for aligning with Guadagnino’s usual excellence. 

IndieWire film critic David Ehrlich echoed similar sentiments, sharing his struggle to write a review that doesn’t get him “sentenced to several years in horny jail.”

When does Challengers release?

Following a significant delay caused by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes last year, Challengers is set to finally arrive in Australian cinemas on Thursday April 18th. 

Preview screenings of the film are happening all across Australia on Wednesday April 17th if, like us, you can’t wait any longer to see the audacious sports film.