Cinema
Challengers
Italian director Luca Guadagnino has made a name for himself by making emotionally captivating films, usually centred around the lives of ordinary yet complicated people who are somewhat lost and in search of that special something, or someone.
In his latest film, Challengers, we're thrust into a complicated love triangle that becomes hopelessly tangled in a messy web of lust, desire and fierce competition. It's an intense and fascinating tale that's brought alive by heated performances and Guadagnino's visually astute and punchy direction. Here we have the hallmarks of a director who is compelled by the subtle nuances of the human condition, an evolving conflict between our innermost dreams and desires, and our more base and primal instincts.
Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist play two old friends and sporting rivals, Patrick and Art, who are working their way up the ranks of the very competitive world of professional tennis tournaments. What links Patrick and Art together is their relationship with their coach, Tashi (Zendaya), a former tennis star who lives and breathes the game 24/7. In a bid to get the absolute best out of Patrick and Art, Tashi toys and plays with the young men's emotions, with the fine lines between love, lust and cold-hearted manipulation blurred between all three.
Guadagnino fractures the timeline, so we're offered slices of the story in a sequence as complicated and ambiguous as Tashi's feelings for both Patrick and Art. Is Tashi cold, aloof and only concerned with nurturing a winner using extreme methods? Or, is it Tashi who is being manipulated here, trapped between the glamour of the sport and the cruel twist of fate that robbed her of her chance to become a champion in her own right?
Like all heart-pounding tales of desire, it's complicated, and Luca Guadagnino wouldn't have it any other way.
Give this one a go if you're in the mood for an intense and gripping drama – you'll not regret it.
Ordinary Angels
A faith-based drama with Hallmark Channel written all over it, you'd be forgiven for passing Ordinary Angels at very first glance.
Still, there's something appealing about the simplicity of this little flick that makes it an easy digestible offering that just washes over you.
Hilary Swank plays Kentucky resident Sharon Stevens, an aging hairdresser who has overcome her own demons with alcohol addiction. Having found her own inner peace, Sharon wants to give something back to the community, and finds a mission when she learns of a little girl in dire need of a liver transplant. Having lost her mother and with her father struggling to pay the bills, the Schmitt family could really do with a miracle, and the determined Sharon is just what the doctor ordered.
Based on a true story, it's hard not to get caught up in this well-meaning saga. Director Jon Gunn keeps the action focused on Sharon's cast-iron will and desire to do right, so as faith-based as this film is, it's not as preachy or as heavy as you may think.
Told with sincerity and held together by a solid performance by the always reliable Hilary Swank, Ordinary Angels is a genteel flick that's not going to rock your world, but will whisk you away on a wave of good-feeling for an hour or two.
