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This article was published August 26, 2022.
Weve updated it to includeone hell of a matchfrom the new movieChallengers.
Tennis is a sport of personal intensity and triumph.
Its thetennis scenewe should be talking about.
Is one player letting the other win, hinting at a yet-to-be-fully explored attraction?
Or is the competition cutthroat, representative of an otherwise stifled tension felt by one or both sides?
Tennis scenes are therefore convenient, relatable, and character-building: screenwriting gold.
Occasionally, great tennis scenes give good tennis form, too.
Call it cinemas most portentous let.
The choice for Lucy, as we in the audience are fully aware, is an easy one.
9.Wimbledon(2004)
Richard LoncrainesWimbledonis the ultimate if you know, you know movie.
That distance also allows Dayton and Faris to depict the match as a spectators story.
To Billie Jean King, the outcome of the match was never in doubt.
1 Arantxa Sanchez Vicario.
We see what Venus is up against.
and Nancy Carell end up being not so much doubles partners as bewildered spectators.
2.Challengers(2024)
Were showing incredible restraint by not immediately rocketingChallengersto No.
1 on this list, but to protect against recency bias, were putting it discreetly at No.
Are we feeling what Hemmings is seeing?
Is Hemmings existing in reality at all?
Or has Antonioni revealed his whole film to be an abstraction?
Its probably the most highbrow tennis match in cinema history, and it may not have ever happened.
