Jarrett the Cinephile

Impartiality shall make this film review the most difficult one for me just yet. On a personal level, I dig Challengers and would gladly do a spontaneous watch just about anywhere, anytime (especially after it goes on video and stream). Technically, I am also fully aware it has noticeable flaws, even one or two rather fundamental slips if I may say so. Allow me to put on permanent record first, of what I said about Luca Guadagnino on social media before, in particular regarding this film - this filmmaker is for sure going to hell for the lust he both commits and brings out in us. Challengers spells tension: tension on the tennis court of course, but just as intense, if not more so, was the sexual tension throughout the film. Sure, this movie is no Basic Instinct (1992), but a lot is going on beyond the highly anticipated intimate scene in the first act, and Reznor and Ross's score is responsible for 50% of that easily. Still of Zendaya in Challengers  (2024) (Credits: Amazon MGM

To be frank, I think I'm not so used to seeing (drastically) raved reviews of, not just Dune: Part Two , but any movie, and then to have to objectively lower my own expectations before seeing it on the big screen myself so as to avoid any sort of disappointment, and also to be able to review it as neutrally as I can. Still of Zendaya (right), "Chani", and Timothée Chalamet ("Paul Atreides") in Dune: Part Two Credit: Warner Bros. My first viewing of Dune: Part Two was on its day of release in Singapore, in IMAX. Because of the above-mentioned, I finished the film impressed nonetheless, but also couldn't quite quantify the film's quality, resulting in a rating-less review on Letterboxd . A month passed, and I took my mum to my second viewing (which was her first), and I finally managed to collect my thoughts about the movie. I'm just gonna say that I find parts one and two vastly different, and to rank one of them above the other is probably impossibl