With Challengers, Luca Guadagnino (Call Me by Your Name) has made one of the best films of the year so far. The love triangle between the three tennis pros Tashi (Zendaya), Art (Mike Faist) and Patrick (Josh O’Connor) is captivating with lots of interpersonal drama, sizzling eroticism and elegantly interwoven time jumps. And then comes a finale in which a tennis duel explodes in a more electrifying way than ever before in film history.
The perhaps the most brilliant Challengers moment happens earlier and lasts just two seconds. It brilliantly sums up the complicated relationship between Art and Patrick with a sugary pastry.
Challengers unleashes desire and envy with two bites into a churro
In Guadagnino’s film, the story begins with Art and Patrick lusting after Tashi together. The first long erotic scene brings all three together in a room, where Zendaya’s character is kissed on the neck by both men at the same time. She pulls back so skillfully that suddenly Art and Patrick kiss passionately.
The moment shows for the first time how much both men desire each other in Challengers, although a rivalry over Tashi also develops between them. After a time jump, Patrick is in a relationship with Zendaya’s character and meets Art again in a cafeteria. The two sit down at a table, eat churros, the popular Spanish pastry made of fat and sugar, and talk.
Art says that Tashi doesn’t see the relationship with Patrick as anything serious. Patrick immediately sees through the statement as perfidious trickto drive a wedge between his friend and his new relationship with Zendaya’s character, who Art also has strong feelings for. Patrick comes closer and closer to Art, with sticky churro sugar on his cheek, and says that Art misses this competitive aggressiveness in his tennis game. Art initially pushes Patrick away, but he comes closer to him again.
Then comes the decisive moment when Art reaches for a new churro, which Patrick immediately grabs. He takes a big bite, holds it out to Art and the bites just as hard while both men look deep into each other’s eyes.
In the YouTube video, director Luca Guadagnino explains the creation of the churros scene in Challengers:
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Luca Guadagnino, who has been a star since the peach scene in Call Me by Your Name, Expert for scenes with sensually used food has directly added a new milestone to this facet of his work.
The queer Challengers moment tells an entire film in a few minutes
The churros scene in Challengers causes the crackling tension between Art and Patrick to explode within two seconds. The almost three-minute sequence before that is already set up like a heated tease. Although they are talking about a woman, it is only about their mutual feelings and the relationship between the two men at the moment.
The brief moment when Art wipes the sugar from Patrick’s cheek seems like a loving foreplay. Josh O’Connor’s first churro bite is then a challenging invitation, a seductive gesture to simultaneously provoke Art and finally trigger his seething desire. Mike Faist’s reciprocating bite together with a look that exudes both fighting spirit and excitementis the climax.
Everything we need to know about Art and Patrick in Luca Guadagnino’s film is contained in this one Challengers moment.