Film fans go wild as ’10/10 perfect’ blockbuster finally hits the screens: ‘This is THE

Film fans have hailed Challengers ’10/10′ and ‘absolutely phenomenal’ as the steamy sports movie was released in cinemas on Friday. 

The blockbuster stars Zendaya as Tashi Duncan, a former tennis prodigy who gives up her career after suffering an injury and becomes a coach. 

She begins training her colleague Art, who is played by Mike Faist, whom she falls in love with and marries.

However, Tashi gets entangled in a love triangle when Art is enrolled on the Challenger Tour and faces off against her ex Patrick – played by Josh O’Connor.

The movie has been praised by critics and holds a 91 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and now cinemagoers have doubled down on the great reviews by sharing their thoughts. 

Taking to X, formerly Twitter, viewers shared:  ‘#Challengers the best movie I’ve seen all year. Z, Josh, and Mike was f***ing incredible! And I hear talk noms already. It’s definitely soo f***ing cool seeing my hometown in movies! And shout out to Darnell for being an amazing umpire ! 10 10 10s across the board!’;

‘challengers is THE movie of the year. the love triangle, the sexual tension, the dialogue, the score, zendaya. the freaking cinematography. this movie had me stuck to the screen, it was everything and more. movies like this remind me why i love cinema so damn much #Challengers’;

‘#Challengers is a steamy, sexy sports film set to the pace of a strong tennis match. Bolstered by a killer score, Luca Guadagnino adds a pulse to his style for a story that is admittedly more interesting in execution than in substance. But as far as being hot goes, it’s a winner.’

‘#Challengers reminds us why we go to the movies. Absolutely electric from beginning to end. I was hung on every single word our three leads spoke. It’s been a WHILE since I audibly hollered / clapped when a movie finished, but this did it. THOSE FINAL TEN MINUTES.’;

‘Challengers is absolutely phenomenal. A perfect blend of high class sports drama and erotic thriller. Zendaya has never been better, owning every moment like the movie star she is. Faist and O’Connor are nearly on her level the entire way. Edited and scored to perfection. 10/10’;

‘just saw challengers and lemme tell you… NOW THATS CINEMAAAAAA’; ‘the ending of Challengers is some of the most exhilarating cinema i’ve seen in a long time’; ‘challengers was so good 10/10’; 

Cinemagoers shared their thoughts on the movie after critics also gave it rave reviews.  

The film was described as a ‘slick, sexy, hugely entertaining tennis romantic triangle’ by Ty Burr from The Washington Post.  

Meanwhile the Hollywood Reporter‘s David Rooney summarized the film as ‘Smart, seductive and bristling with sexual tension’ adding that ‘Challengers is arguably Luca Guadagnino’s most purely pleasurable film to date; it’s certainly his lightest and most playful.’ 

‘The movie’s a paean to hard work and hedonism, and if its pleasures are mostly surface — grass, clay, emotional — it’s still been too long since we’ve had an intelligent frolic like this,’ Burr added in his review. 

Amy Nicholson from The Los Angeles Times calls it ‘a trim, naughty, ferociously well-acted trifle about characters more likely to scrawl something foul on a bathroom stall than quote Heraclitus.’

She adds, ‘Zendaya’s performance slices through the noise… She gets the funniest, meanest comebacks and holds the screen like a woman in command, even when she allows the film to leer.’

‘It wants to engage and entertain you, and it does that very nicely,’ Manohla Dargis of the New York Times wrote about the film. 

Brian Truitt from USA Today suggested that the movie, ‘Falls nebulously somewhere between a coming-of-age flick, dysfunctional relationship drama and snazzy sports extravaganza, Guadagnino nevertheless holds serve with yet another engaging, hot-blooded tale of flawed humans figuring out their feelings.’ 

‘A funny, tempestuous, and exuberantly lusty story about how three athletic demigods see their destinies upended. And Guadagnino tells it the way he knows best, with a sometimes exasperating but ultimately irresistible surfeit of style,’ Justin Chang of the New Yorker wrote.

David Sims from The Atlantic praised the film for being ‘far more thrilling, and triumphant, than a simple tale of someone lifting a trophy, or love conquering all.’ 

The New York Post called Challengers this year’s ‘Saltburn’ – a nod to Emerald Fennell’s 2023 film famous for its shocking explicit scenes. 

‘Challengers may not be this director’s most psychologically insightful movie—the characters can at times feel like chess-piece contrivances rather than fully rounded individuals—but it’s almost certainly his most entertaining and fastest-paced,’ Slate’s Dana Stevens wrote. 

‘The plot of Challengers might sound stale, and yet, there’s an electric spark to Guadagnino’s approach that elevates the material, rendering it fresh,’ Peter Debruge from Variety quipped. 

However, not all wrestlers impressed. Kyle Smith from the Wall Street Journal penned, ‘[Luca Guadagnino] does his best to give substance to a thin, soapy story, but he relies so heavily on gimmicks (several montages feature electronic dance music) that he starts to seem desperate.’ 

Meanwhile Vulture’s Angelica Jade Bastién wrote, ‘The details of these people’s lives and their interiorities are so thinly drawn they feel more like beautiful ideas crashing into one another and leaving little messes that are too easy to clean up.’

Meanwhile Guadagnino previously praised Zendaya’s talents, explaining she worked with tennis pro and former player Brad Gilbert to prepare for the part.

Luca gushed to Variety last October: ‘She’s wonderful. I mean, wow. We edited the movie and we almost actually don’t use any of her double. She’s so good.

He added that ‘all three leads spent like three months working very hard—technically, athletically.’

In a recent interview, Zendaya admitted that having an intimacy coordinator on set was ‘very helpful,’ and praised them for keeping a ‘safe’ environment on set.

‘We had an intimacy coordinator which was fantastic and very helpful, because it was important that we felt safe,’ she told The Hollywood Reporter.

The film is suffused with ‘intense’ erotic scenes between Zendaya and her leading men, so the trio needed to find ways to decompress when they were on camera.

‘I spoke with my colleagues so that we could find a way to feel at ease. We played tennis together, we went out together, we rehearsed together,’ she shared. ‘We got to bond and feel good with each other.’