Sex, Chaos & Thrill: 5 Movies You Should Bookmark After Watching Zendaya’s ‘Challengers’

What movie is that? A question everyone asked after that (ahem) one specific scene of Zendaya‘s new sports movie, Challengers, dropped. Helmed by Call Me by Your Name and Bones and All-famed filmmaker Luca Guadagnino, Challengers is a tennis drama full of dramatic backhands, ultra-stylish sporty outfits, and a love triangle involving tones of frustrating sexual chemistry between Zendaya and her two smitten white boys.

The Euphoria actress plays tennis sensation Tashi Duncan, whose career has tragically ended due to an injury. Later, she turns coach, directing her competitive spirit towards her struggling husband, played by Mike Faist. Tension starts to build when he is pitted against Josh O’Connor, his former best friend and Tashi’s ex. With its voguish dynamic and riveting athletic accomplishments both on and off the court, this opens a film that is guaranteed to have you gripping on the edge of your seat and yelling.

With all the chaos and drama, Challengers will make you want to watch more of this twisted genre and to help you fill that void, we’re here to help. Scroll to see our recommendations:

1. Saltburn

This has to be the first movie to come to your mind after watching Challengers, though Saltburn is way for messed up. Academy Award-winning filmmaker Emerald Fennell, known for the movie Promising Young Woman, brings you a beautifully wicked tale of privilege and desire. Struggling to find his place at Oxford University, student Oliver Quick played by Barry Keoghan finds himself drawn into the world of the charming and aristocratic Felix Catton played by Jacob Elordi, who invites him to Saltburn, his eccentric family’s sprawling estate, for a summer never to be forgotten. The movie is disturbing, and haunting yet quite entertaining.

Stream On: Prime Video

2. Bones and All

Directed by Challengers director Luca Guadagnino himself, Bones and All is a story of first love between Maren, a young woman (Taylor Russell) learning how to survive on the margins of society, and Lee (Timothée Chalamet), an intense and disenfranchised drifter. The movie is a liberating road odyssey of two young people coming into their own, searching for identity and chasing beauty in a perilous world that cannot abide by who they are.

Stream On: Prime Video

3. The Riot Club

If we had to describe the movie in a line, we’d say: Rich spoiled kids creating a mess. Two first-year students (Sam Claflin and Max Irons) at Oxford University join a secret society and learn that their reputations can be made or destroyed over the course of one evening. The Riot Club may not be subtle, but it makes its points with power, using dark humour and a talented cast to offer a scathing indictment of unearned privilege. The movie also stars Challenger’s Josh O’Connor.

Stream On: Apple Tv

4. Malcolm & Marie

The maker of Euphoria, Sam Levinson teamed up with Zendaya and John David Washington for an achingly romantic drama in which a filmmaker (Washington) and his girlfriend (Zendaya) return home following a celebratory movie premiere as he awaits what’s sure to be an imminent critical and financial success. The evening suddenly takes a turn as revelations about their relationships begin to surface, testing the strength of their love.

Stream On: Netflix

5. Don’t Worry Darling

Alice and Jack (Florence Pugh and Harry Styles) are lucky to be living in the idealised community of Victory, the experimental company town housing the men who work for the top-secret Victory Project and their families. The 1950s societal optimism espoused by their CEO, Frank – equal parts corporate visionary and motivational life coach – anchors every aspect of daily life in the tight-knit desert utopia. While the husbands spend every day inside the Victory Project Headquarters, working on the “development of progressive materials,” their wives, including Frank’s elegant partner, Shelley, get to spend their time enjoying the beauty, luxury and debauchery of their community.

Life is perfect, But when the flashes of something much more sinister lurking beneath the attractive façade appear, Alice can’t help questioning exactly what they’re doing in Victory, and why. Just how much is Alice willing to lose to expose what’s really going on in this paradise?

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