The ‘Challengers’ Boys Are Making Everyone Horny for Big Ears
Italian director Luca Guadagnino knows how to frame beautiful bodies, and they are rarely as beautiful as in his latest, Challengers. Zendaya’s neverending limbs float through the air to the beats of Nelly’s “Hot in Herre” and sweat drips through necks and chests and abs alike, making the toned bodies of both Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist glisten under the unforgiving sun of the small town where they face each other in a tennis match that will crown a winner in more ways than one.
If you are a human being with access to the internet and even a slight interest in pop culture, you will know by now that Challengers chronicles 12 years in the deliciously intertwined lives of tennis players Tashi Duncan (Zendaya), Art Donaldson (Faist) and Patrick Zweig (O’Connor). It is also a sports movie that understands the teasing nature of lust like few others in recent memory and, in doing so, it pays special attention to nooks and crannies of the human body that might otherwise go unnoticed in the rush to jump into a bed and seal the deal. A foot pulling a stool a little closer, a finger wiping away sugar from someone’s cheek, a reddened back of the neck, a kiss planted softly on a knee.
Alas, it is one particular body part—well, a set of body parts—that gets to shine in Guadagnino’s take on the sports movie: the ears. Both Faist and O’Connor have protruding ears, or otapostasis, a condition that affects only around two percent of the population but makes 100 percent of that sample significantly hotter. In Challengers, cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom often resorts to low-angle shots that not only capture the dynamic nature of tennis with thrilling precision but also highlight both men’s appendages (clear your mind!), with Art and Patrick’s ears beautifully sticking out as they glide and grunt on the tennis court.