Challengers is the threesome the film industry didn’t know it needed.

Easily dismissed as a romance, or a trashy sports film, Challengers initially gave me whiplash when I first watched it. The tension in the movie crawls up your back so slowly that suddenly you realise you’re at the edge of your seat, gripping the armrests as you watch the final minutes unfold. And then you leave the cinema in a sweat: films are so back.

It turns out, that if you give Justin Kuritzkes a keyboard instead of a YouTube login, you’ll end up with a pretty good screenplay. He manages to encapsulate the kinds of taboo emotions and tensions that people are thinking about but not talking about. Each character’s passions and lusts lie in several directions and as you follow their combined relationship over the course of a decade, you get to see the messiest sides of human jealousy, selfishness and drive. Alongside these emotions, is the exploration of homoeroticism, a topic Guadagnino focuses on particularly in many of his films. This is an area that the film industry needs to be covering more, alongside these other complex, ugly emotions as it grants the audience a sense of relatability and open-mindedness. Challenging typical societal norms on sexuality through creative forms such as film, forces viewers to think outside the box comfortably. Additionally, exploring queerness in a subtle yet engageable way such as this, is much more impactful than the tokenisation of many LGBTQ+ characters we see on screen today.

Challengers is a cultural reset in terms of expanding on the human experience.

Media that explores niche emotions and topics is ever-growing, as people are more likely to connect with it deeper than something generic produced for a mass audience. Challengers also particularly engages with the younger generation, as it tackles the balancing act of love and friendship alongside having a career. An evolving issue for today’s generation is this juggling act of play or work and watching films cover something that even your parents won’t talk to you about is a soulful comfort that people need. The intertwined dynamics of friendships is also something that is learnt and not taught, but at least through cinema you can continue to build those conversations and understand the varying difficulties in human connection.

Another film that describes the feelings of reconnecting with a long-lost connection is Past Lives, which also came out quite recently. What Challengers does better, is how the narrative interlinks with the characters and deeply invests its watchers. Alongside that, the cinematography and symbolic imagery throughout the film is what makes you rewatch it over and over. Rediscovering the movie from a different angle each time, whether that’s through the wardrobe or lighting, you begin to understand not only the characters on a deeper level but yourself too. Finally, a vital aspect of what completes everything, was Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ soundtrack. Feeling the music thump and vibrate in your ears, you can almost feel the characters’ adrenaline rushing through you. And if that’s not enough to convince you to give Challengers a go, then I guess you’ll never understand how a film threesome can be so meaningful.