Tennis Is War, Actually

Competitive sports films use metaphors to create the illusion of being intelligent according to their narrative approach. Guadagnino understands this situation and he moves through it with the same enthusiasm as a contented dog. Which, fine.

"It's a relationship," Tashi tells Patrick about tennis. For fifteen seconds at a time, anyway. The remaining steps require physical labor which produces expenses. The filmmakers Guadagnino and Sayombhu Mukdeeprom capture the sport through a combination of nuclear physics and interpretive dance elements by using cameras to follow the court and net and transform into the ball. The system operates at a higher level than its design would suggest. Some of it commits so hard it almost wraps back around to working.

The film presents tennis whites in a way that makes them appear more substantial than ever before. Jonathan Anderson uses his costumes to transform athletic clothing into tools which create psychological distress. The expensive cream and beige clothing Tashi wears exceeds the cost of my rent payments and most likely matches the expenses of your rent as well. Her power suits announce themselves before she enters a room.

The main character Patrick receives an "I Told Ya" t-shirt which serves as the movie's recurring comedic element. The artwork presents itself as an expensive item through its unremarkable presentation which resembles the way money appears when it wants to remain unobtrusive. Every outfit reveals to you which person is winning and which person is desperate and which person has lost hope. Anderson apparently pulled from JFK Jr. playing frisbee, which tracks. The entire situation appears as if Nantucket has lost its composure completely.

The color grading system performs most of its work when dialogue information is not available. Wait, actually that's unfair. The color grading does ALL the heavy lifting. Mukdeeprom uses film to capture his images through Kodak 500T stock which he uses to create a sense of dampness and suppressed anger in each frame. Sweat produces its own visual messages through its effects on light as it interacts with it. A parking lot dispute about red brake lights leads to emotional violence. You know exactly how each character feels about the others based solely on whether they're shot in warm or cool tones.

Zendaya navigates through the movie with the same grace as if she were made from marble which gained the ability to walk after only one day. Beautiful, yes. Cold, absolutely. Sometimes she hits the right note of imperious control freak whose entire life collapsed with one bad knee. She sometimes wears designer espadrilles while giving her disapproving stare. "This is a game about winning the points that matter," Art says at one point, and Zendaya's whole performance exists in that space between the points, calculating angles.

Can we talk about the score for a second? The music composition of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross creates a dance club atmosphere which sounds like someone experiencing a panic attack. The sound disrupts all peaceful dialogue while it interrupts tennis matches and it will not allow you to find any moment of peace. I continued to wait for the situation to become more peaceful. It never does.
O'Connor gets it though. His Patrick is pure chaotic energy stuffed into too-small shorts from high school, sleeping in cars, manipulating everyone while acting like manipulation is beneath him. He presents all his bad decisions as if they were destined to happen. Faist performs Art by repeatedly checking for his wife's love but she no longer loves him and he already knows this. The actors deliver better performances than the movie requires.

The structure of the text moves randomly between different sections as if someone had edited it while experiencing a sugar high. 2006, 2019, 2011, back to 2019, sideways to 2007. The flashbacks occur at particular times which reveal that the story follows a chronological sequence. Some of this chaos feels intentional, the rest feels like Guadagnino couldn't decide which take to use so he used them all. The 131-minute duration of the film distorts time perception which results in an extended yet condensed viewing experience.

The threesome scene which people discuss the most does not contain any sexual content. It's strategic. Tashi leads the operation before he steps back to observe the boys sharing a kiss. Everything in this film is someone's strategy against someone else. Love is tennis is war is sex is business is tennis again. Around and around. The ending just cuts to black mid-moment, basically admitting it has no idea how to resolve any of this. Which, honestly? Respect.

The film presents itself as a sports movie subverter yet it strictly adheres to all traditional sports movie conventions. The story follows an underdog character who trains through montages until reaching their climactic final match. All there. I recorded the scene from below while the background turned into artificial mayhem. The process of creating a traditional wedding cake requires mayonnaise frosting instead of traditional frosting while claiming it represents a groundbreaking innovation.

The costumes continue to stay in my mind.