Plot Summary – Tashi, a tennis player turned coach, has transformed her husband from a mediocre player into a world-famous grand slam champion. To jolt him out of his recent losing streak, she makes him play a challenger event — close to the lowest level of tournament on the pro tour. Tensions soon run high when he finds himself standing across the net from the once-promising, now burnt-out Patrick, his former best friend and Tashi’s former boyfriend.

★★★★★ 

Watched 04 May 2024

I was blown away by this film. I’ve never seen a film that made me sympathize and feel for three protagonists and then make me hate all of them by the end. This film is breathless and yet takes plenty of moments to breathe. It’s a paradox in almost every way. It is way too weirdly edited, shot, and written to be considered a commercial blockbuster. It’s also way too freaky, glamorous, and polished to be considered indie or arthouse. That gives it a very comfortable midpoint of art and commerce that Luca straddles to perfection (pun 100% intentional).

Zendaya is a revelation here. This might just be her best performance I’ve never seen her be this morally dubious while also managing to never let you fully in to how she’s feeling. In Euphoria, she’s very often the reactor to things happening to her. In Dune as well. Here, she is the active agent for most of the story and seeing her play the angst and indecisiveness was incredible. Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor are the most homo-erotic onscreen pairing I’ve ever seen. American cinema has been littered with machismo and homoeroticism for years but it has really peaked with this film.

My favorite film composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are back at it here with easily the best film score of the decade. I thought Dune Part Two would be impossible to top, but this one is out of the world. The entire film is bouncing and moving to the rhythm of this incredibly electric score. It’s so energetic and fun to hear. It’ll be in my playlist for a long time.

The film plays with structure in such a fun way as well. Constantly cutting back and forth and juxtaposing events of the past to ones in the present, it’s a very intricately and meticulously written film. The complexity of its narrative would be lost without the absolute masterful editing. Especially the use of title cards, is something I really liked. The outfits and production design are also crafted with so much attention to detail. Everything from the sponsorships to the music in the background of scenes, you really feel like you’re in the era that is being depicted in different parts of the film.

I highly recommend this to anyone who gets a chance to see it cause I think it might be one of the most interesting films to talk about and discuss for the next decade. What a thrill ride!