137. Luca Guadagnino's Challengers with Andrew Kendall

Seventh Row Podcast

In this episode, we discuss Luca Guadagnino’s new film Challengers (2024), which stars Zendaya, Mike Faist, and Seventh Row favourite Josh O’Connor as competitive tennis players and romantic rivals.

Film critic and Katherine Hepburn obsessive Andrew Kendall joins host Alex Heeney for the episode. We are both Josh O’Connor super-fans and liked the film. But we had a lot of issues with it. We discuss why we can’t stop thinking about it and where it disappoints.

Get your copy of Alex’s book on Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me by Your Name.

Get your copy of Alex’s book on Francis Lee’s film God’s Own Country, which stars Josh O’Connor in his breakout role.

Get both books with our 35% discounted bundle here.

For detailed show notes, click here. There is also an AI-generated transcript available on our website.

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On this episode:

0:00 Intro to Challengers and why we’re talking about the film (Josh O’Connor and Luca Guadagnino)

6:04 Why can’t we stop thinking about the film even though we had issues with it? What’s all the fuss about?

13:40 Tennis serves as an extended metaphor and a structure of the film and informs the film’s grammar

26:15 Missing scenes and character development

56:49 The film fails to recognize momentous occasions and how this relates to the way the film was shot

1:00:00 How Luca Guadagnino’s direction rescues weaknesses in the script and performances

1:20:00 Will Challengers still matter by the end of the year or years from now?

1:23:00 Where you can find us, related episodes, coming soon on the podcast

Show Notes

• Purchase a copy of Alex’s ebook Call Me by Your Name: A Special Issue

• Purchase a copy of Alex’s ebook God’s Own Country: A Special Issue

• Read Andrew’s review of Challengers for Stabroek News

• Read Seventh Row’s Special Issue on A Bigger Splash

Read Alex’s piece on Josh O’Connor’s performances in Emma. and Hope Gap

Related Episodes:

Get the Spotify Playlist of FREE related episodes.

• Ep. 110: Weekend and End of the Century

• Ep. 115: Revisiting The English Patient 25 Years Later with Andrew Kendall

• Ep. 33: Comparing Emma Adaptations, including Emma. starring Josh O’Connor (Members Only)

• Ep. 28: 1917 and Jarhead: Sam Mendes’ war films (Members Only)

• Ep. 66 Francis Lee’s God’s Own Country and Ammonite

• Ep. 71: The Crown Season 4

• Ep. 4: Suspiria and Luca Guadagnino’s violent bodies (Members Only)

• Ep. 94: Looking HBO with Andrew Kendall (Members Only)

More episodes featuring Andrew Kendall

• Ep. 115: Revisiting The English Patient 25 Years Later (Members Only)

• Ep. 82: Quo Vadis, Aida and Our Lady of the Nile: Genocide on Film (Members Only)

• Ep. 108: The Deep Blue Sea(s) Redux

Discover all episodes featuring Andrew Kendall.

Coming Soon: Abortion on Film Season

In this six-episode season, we discuss how socially progressive depictions of abortion on film have changed and developed since the 1950s. The season will start airing publicly in late May, but you can listen to the entire season today as a member!

Find out more about the Abortion on Film season

Become a member to listen to the entire season today! We will begin airing the show to the public in the coming weeks.