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What makes for a great cinematic kiss?
The kind of kiss that enraptures an audience because they can feel it in their very bones.
It takes place 13 years prior to the films main timeline.
She speaks of tennis like a lover whose body she studies with the reverence of a priest.
Her gaze is meant to read as clear, her voice and posture undaunted.
Tashi sits on the motel bed and motions for them both to join her.
In a tangle of frantic limbs they land on either side of her.
Here, Tashi is in control.
She teases them with almost-kisses, effervescent touches.
Then she turns to Art.
Mouth open, eyes closed; hungry with need.
Their kiss is tentative before passion takes over.
She turns to Patrick, whose desire for her manifests in even deeper kissesand roving hands.
After this scene, the sexual tension between Art and Patrick recurs only as thinly veiled subtext.
Anderson) not to feel entirely empty.
This isnt to say his films arent worth experiencing.
In 2019, the trios respective lives have taken on jagged new contours.
We never learn much about how Tashi feels about her body post-accident or after having a child.
The Challenger arena is where Art and Patrick cross paths again.
Anger and distrust roil between them immediately.
to feel the strain.
Its entertaining, barely, and jarring too much too late.
The body is incidental to the hothouse psychological games these characters are playing on or off the court.
Its undeniable that Zendaya is a star.
The charisma and intensity just arent there.
Such a moment should hit like a gut punch.
Instead, it dissipates upon arrival, like smoke rising in the air.
The deadpan delivery feels less an intentional choice than an act of habit.
Like the filmChallengersitself, Zendaya is a star who still operates on the surface of things.
