My little Stories

Casting Mike Faist to play Art Donaldson is an absolute masterwork. He's so good at looking innocent while also being really hot, you automatically sympathize with him. Even when what he's actually doing is engaging in behavior as unsympathetic as the behavior of the other three more often than not. The whole audience feels sorry for him when, out of the three, he's the one who wins everything. He gets the fame, the fortune, the titles, the wife, the baby AND the endless admiration and love of his hot best friend who validates his sexiness in a way his wife doesn't.

Patrick literally lives in his car and is more or less surviving on a combination of sex work and winning just enough matches to continue to qualify as a professional tennis player. He's lost his girl and his friend not only seems to hate him, but also refuses to really admit being attracted to him. Tashi lost her career, her boyfriend who loved her but wasn't quite ready to say that, and her identity. Some of these things Art did to them on purpose, and others they did to themselves being dumb, but the last person to feel sorry for is the man who persistently kept his head in the game and got everything he wanted from a pair of people who are notoriously reticent to give anything up.

#get a room

bonus:

I don’t think it counts as cheating if you do it as part of your ploy to convince your ex to throw the game against your husband so he gets his groove back before the open with the added bonus that when he finds out it’ll make him play better tennis and also you and your ex are really sexy together and sex with him is about sex with your husband which is about sex with him and neither of you ever technically broke up with your ex anyway so

TASHI DUNCAN about ART DONALDSON & PATRICK ZWEIG Challengers (2024) dir. Luca Guadagnino

Mike Faist as Art Donaldson CHALLENGERS (2024) dir. Luca Guadagnino

I've been waiting for you my whole life, waiting for you.

Challengers (2024) dir. Luca Guadagnino

CHALLENGERS — (2024) dir. Luca Guadagnino

keep thinking about how tashi and patrick both love art and in their own ways want what's best for him. tashi manipulating the match so that he builds his confidence against strong players and patrick using dirty games to force art into becoming a better tennis player on his own accord. meanwhile art is aware and still lets them do anything they want to him because ultimately he feels safe being in the control of other people, specifically those two

tashi and art behind the scenes

MIKE FAIST Challengers Video Diaries

MIKE FAIST Challengers (2024)