Zendaya Gives Her Best Performance Yet | ReelBlend's 'Challengers' Review

Zendaya, Josh O'Connor and Mike Faist in Challengers.
(Image credit: MGM)

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“Challengers,” from writer-director Luca Guadagnino, is our favorite performance from the ever-talented Zendaya, but she isn’t alone. Mike Fast and Josh O’Connor equally deliver to create a three-piece ensemble that propels us through one of the year's most exciting films. In this week’s show, we dive right in with our review, and if you’ve managed to make it out to the theater already, stick around for our brief spoiler-filled section that follows. For those that haven’t, hit pause and see this one as soon as possible. 

Also this week, in light of recent success at the box office, we discuss the nature of the middle-budget feature film and its potential comeback in the industry. Finally, Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman’s “Deadpool & Wolverine” dropped the full-length trailer we’ve all been dying to see, and we give our immediate impressions.  

Timestamps (approx. only)

  • 00:00:00 - Intro
  • 00:04:13 - Are smaller films reclaiming the box office?
  • 00:19:07 - ‘Challengers’ Review (Spoiler-Free)
  • 00:29:56 - ‘Challengers’ SPOILERS!
  • 00:38:23 - ‘Deadpool & Wolverine” Trailer Reactions
  • 00:51:50 - Game: Lost In Translation
  • 01:00:15 - Outro

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Gabriel Kovacs
Video Producer & Podcast Lead

Gabe studied Film & Photography at Webster University. He currently spends his free time looking like a fool trying to play Ice Hockey (a recently acquired hobby), playing video games, and watching every movie starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Dwayne, if you're reading this...he sends his love.