🍿92: Challengers

This week: 1,200+ new subscribers and a major announcement about the future of SP 🍿

May 02, 2024

“The most strongest, the most powerful, the most dangerous creature on this whole earth is a woman who knows how to think. Ain’t nothing she can't do’.”
~ King Richard, 2021

1,200 to love…

What an exciting week it has been for Salty Popcorn! On Monday, we were made a Featured Publication (for the second time!) on the front page of the Substack website and app. As well as being given a shiny badge on our About Page, our readership has grown by more than 1,200 new subscribers, which is phenomenal.

If you’re new here: welcome! You’ve joined SP at the best possible time, as this sudden surge has given us the oomph to start creating more content. There are plenty of ideas buzzing around Salty HQ but the one that’s buzzing the loudest is to start sending SP out every week (rather than every fortnight).

A lot of time and love goes into every issue of SP, and going to the cinema every week isn’t easy, plus there isn’t always a film showing that’s worth writing about. This might mean reviewing a mixture of new releases and older gems.

However, you can still rely on SP to send:

Honest and spoiler-free reviews
Our picks of the latest trailers
Up-to-date movie news
Fun film facts (that you can use to impress everyone you know)

We also have ideas for new features (some of which may replace current sections), plus events and other forms of content. It’s an exciting time for Salty Popcorn, and while there’ll be some fine-tuning, we hope you’ll stick around for the ride.

The Headlines

Jodie Comer, Ralph Fiennes and Aaron Taylor-Johnson are all set to star in 28 Years Later, but we’re still waiting (and praying) for confirmation on Cillian Murphy’s return to the franchise. Read more.
The Lord of the Rings trilogy is being rereleased in cinemas, this time in 4K — and yes it will be the extended editions. Read more.
Emma Stone has said she would like to be called by her real name: Emily. So spread the word. Read more.
Speaking of, ~~Emma~~ Emily Stone will be teaming up with Nathan Fielder to produce a film for A24 based on the Carlsen-Niemann chess scandal. Yes, that chess scandal. Read more.
And finally, to coincide with the release of Challengers, Mubi has collated a collection of films centred on love triangles, aptly named ‘The More the Messier’. Check it out.

Upcoming Releases

Lee

UK: 13 September // USA: 20 September

Kate Winslet stars as Elizabeth ‘Lee’ Miller alongside Andy Samberg, Alexander Skarsgård and Marion Cotillard in this biopic about the fashion model who became a war correspondent for Vogue during World War II.

Sleep

UK: 12 July // USA: TBC

Expectant mother Soo-jin (Jung Yu-mi) must figure out how to stop the nightmarish sleepwalking habits of her husband Hyeon-soo (Lee Sun-kyun) before he harms himself or his family. Parasite director Bong Joon Ho has called it the “smartest debut film” he’s seen in 10 years.

Fact of the week

With Star Wars Day around the corner, here’s something you may not know about one of the original films…

Return of the Jedi was shot partly on location in the Redwood forests of Northern California to create the setting for the forest moon of Endor. During this time, Peter Mayhew (who played Chewbacca) had to be chaperoned by bodyguards in bright vests to protect him from hunters who might have mistaken him for a bear, or worse Bigfoot.

While the Bigfoot part might sound like a movie myth, Mayhew confirmed this to be true, on Reddit.

Submit Your Fact

Review: Challengers

Star rating:

3 (out of 5)

Where to watch:

USA: Only in cinemas

UK: Only in cinemas

Runtime:

2hr 11m

Director:

Luca Guadagnino

Blurb:

Tashi (Zendaya), a tennis player turned coach, has transformed her husband Art (Mike Faist) from a mediocre player into a world-famous champion. Things get heated however when he’s across the net from his former best friend Patrick (Josh O’Connor), who just so happens to be Tashi’s ex.

The review (NO spoilers):

From Luca Guadagnino, the Oscar-nominated director of Call Me By Your Name comes a film focused on three up-and-coming tennis stars who are nearly as obsessed with the game as they are with each other (and themselves). While the film’s high-octane energy is constant, the drama and intrigue burn out by the end of its 131-minute runtime.

Josh O’Connor, who plays the burnt-out bad boy, Patrick, delivers the best performance. Yet despite this (and the fact that he has the most interesting character) we see a little less of him than his co-stars (or so it feels). Zendaya has her moments too, but she’s given little opportunity to demonstrate her range. Instead, she can be seen scowling cooly for most of the film. Mike Faist’s performance, on the other hand, is so lifeless it’s hard to believe he can even swing a racket. The dynamics between each character are certainly interesting, but the male co-stars seem to have more chemistry between themselves than they do with their supposed love interest.

It’s not until the third act, which is full of achingly experimental camerawork (with POV shots of both ball and racket), that Challengers becomes a challenge in itself. After bouncing through a decade of flashbacks, the film comes to a head, but I came close to losing track and interest. It isn’t until the very last frame of its climactic ending that the pace picks up again, and in that sense, it did leave me wanting more (but just a little bit).

There are some laughs, though the funniest moments are surprisingly slapstick while the rest of the humour relies on awkward moments. It is, for the most part, a fun film but it suffers by taking itself too seriously — caught in the net between being a sports drama and a romantic comedy.

Of course, films don’t need to fit neatly into one category (a drama can have a hint of humour and still be a drama), but Challengers fails to establish a clear theme. The score doesn’t commit either, switching from pumped-up generic gym music to sleepy piano arpeggios and classical choirs, and it just feels weird. There are times when the music is louder than the dialogue, which makes it hard to keep up.

To sum up, Challengers is an oddly-paced film, with a somewhat mismatched cast and a distractingly offbeat score. While there’s some fun to be had, Guadagnino falls short of his previous films. If you’re a fan of the cast, then you might like this but there are probably better films to watch this weekend.

For a difference of opinion, click here to read Peter Bradshaw’s review in The Guardian. Rest assured new readers, we’re not always this salty.

Scroll down to see what’s in the next issue.

If you liked Challengers…

King Richard

2022 | UK: Netflix // USA: Netflix

The good-boy vs. bad-boy act between Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor in Challengers reminded me of Blades of Glory, but that wouldn’t be a fair recommendation this week. So, if you’re looking for a film about tennis, King Richard is fantastic.

But if you’d rather watch another trio stumble down lover’s lane, Past Lives (featured in SP#75) might be for you. Funnily enough, Past Lives was written by Celine Song, the wife of Justin Kuritzkes, who wrote Challengers.

In the next issue:

Love Lies Bleeding

UK: 3 May // USA: 8 March | Watch the Trailer

Salty Popcorn