“People” magazine’s film critic Tom Gliatto just designated “Challengers” as his favorite movie of 2024. While I wouldn’t go that far, Italian director Luca Guadagnino’s (“Call Me by Your Name”) emotional entanglement saga involving three tennis players is certainly one of the most challenging in recent memory.

It begins as discontented top-ranked tennis pro Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) is nearing his 40^th birthday and obviously growing tired of the game, much to the distress of his ultra-competitive wife/coach Tashi Duncan (Zendaya). To restore his mojo, she urges him to enter a low-level Challenger tournament in New Rochelle, New York.

What she doesn’t realize is that Donaldson’s long-time on-court rival, Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor) is one of the participants. Down-on-his-luck and so strapped for cash that he sleeps in his car, Zweig needs a win there in order to qualify for the U.S. Open.

The Donaldson/Zweig relationship is a complicated bromance, dating back to their years on the National Juniors circuit, where they were doubles partners and inseparable buddies until they both fell in love with up-and-coming women’s star Tashi Duncan, who wields a powerhouse backhand.

While Donaldson is so totally disciplined and dependable that he borders on bland, volatile Zweig slyly oozes a rakish energy that backfires as often as it succeeds. 

As for Tashi, she flirtatiously plays precarious mind games with both her suitors that only intensify when she’s sidelined with a career-ending knee injury at Stanford. 

While Zweig ‘wins’ her first, she shrewdly marries Donaldson and they have a hotel-loving daughter who seems irrelevant to the plot. 

This is not your typical sports drama. Guadagnino’s risqué, psychologically intriguing depiction of a love triangle is distinguished by its essential ambiguity. A closing twist leaves the audience wondering who really wins – and – does it really matter?

Scripted by novelist/playwright Justin Kuritzkes, the on-court action is deftly depicted by cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeepromand. The propulsive techno score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is excellent (and I’m not alone in this assessment; it won the Golden Globe Award for best original score last Sunday). 

For those who are curious, the cast ‘trained’ with tennis pro/coach/commentator Brad Gilbert and his wife Kim at a country club outside Boston. They ‘look’ good but much of the visual action is computer-generated.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Challengers” is an erotically-charged, enigmatic 8, streaming on Prime Video and MGM+.

The romantic drama “It Ends With Us” has become far better known for its behind-the-scenes controversy than its impact at the box-office.

When actor/producer/director Justin Baldoni optioned Colleen Hoover’s bestselling 2016 novel about a toxic, abusive relationship and cast Blake Lively as its star, he obviously had no inkling about the on-set tension that would erupt.

But after filming was completed, Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds deliberately avoided Baldoni and his wife Emily at the premieres. Apparently, Lively, having just given birth to her fourth child, felt Baldoni had “fat-shamed” her about her body and allegedly lingered too long in a kissing scene.

Other members of the cast seemed to side with Lively, although Baldoni’s friends steadfastly claim he’s a male feminist and would never behave that way. The conclusion seems to be that Lively and Baldoni had “creative differences.”

So what about the picture itself?

After surviving a difficult childhood in Plethora, Maine, Lily Bloom (Lively) has always dreamed of owning her own flower shop in Boston, where she meets Ryle Kincaid (Baldoni), a charming yet volatile neurosurgeon. 

But then the first-love-of-her-life, protective Atlas Corrigon (Brandon Sklenar), reappears, and Lily faces a painful choice – which involves breaking the insidious cycle of domestic violence that entraps one generation after another.

Adapted by screenwriter Christy Hall, the story is told through Lily’s sensitive perspective, often lacking subtlety and glossing over violent parts of the story, demonstrating how intimidating abusive partnerships can be. Clichés and contrivances abound, many of which can be traced to the original book.

Flashbacks between teenage Lily (Isabela Ferrer) and homeless Atlas (Alex Neustaedter) reveal the traumas that shaped both of their lives.

Bottom Line: the theme serves as a reminder to domestic abuse victims that there is a way out. But it’s questionable whether Baldoni will direct Colleen Hoover’s sequel, “It Starts With Us,” which his Wayfarer Films also optioned.

On the Granger Gauge, “It Ends With Us” is a slow-building, redemptive 6 – now streaming on Netflix.