Today is Sunday, April 28, 2024. Yesterday I was absent from this page because of my seeing my longterm friend, “Jake,” who came to my building around 2:20 p.m. and didn’t leave until about 12:30 a.m. Actually, Jake revealed to me that he would have stayed another hour if he could, but the last time he was with me, I had to lay down the law and request he leave earlier in respect of Elliot’s wishes.

I had a full day of activities planned for Jake and me: a drive to Cunningham Park, dinner at the Blue Bay Diner, and seeing the new Zendaya tennis film called Challengers at the AMC Fresh Meadows Cinema with my AMC gift cards given us by Elliot’s daughters for his birthday last year. We were given three cards each worth $15, but when I turned two in, there was not enough money on both cards to cover two senior ticket rates, so I had to hand the disinterested cashier my third card. Boy, no wonder film theaters are hurting; more and more people are sitting home and watching films on their streaming services, I would posit.

Anyway, the theater playing Challengers was actually filled to the brim from the seating chart presented to us by the assistant, so had to select two seats separate from one another. But when we entered the theater upstairs, there were many empty seats, so Jake initially sat next to me thinking that patrons wouldn’t come. He was wrong! Right before the film was expected to begin, a whole crew of several young women and one man took the seats in our row and one of those in the crowd indicated that Jake was sitting in her seat, so Jake had to move at that point. Don’t you just hate those people who seem to walk in right before the film starts first giving you the impression that the seats next to you were unoccupied and then shatter that expectation right away.

The film is a riveting sports film concerned about the world of tennis, but it’s much more than that. It’s a film framed around a love triangle in which two young men circle around one woman, played by Zendaya. At the beginning of the film, Zendaya as former tennis phenom Tisha Duncan is married to her tennis player husband, Art Donaldson (Mike Faist), who is playing against his former friend and romantic rival, Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor). The film, directed by Luca Guadagnino, tells of the trio’s complicated history via flashbacks that are interspersed during a final match between the two men at a “Challengers” tennis tournament.

Patrick is actually Tashi’s ex-boyfriend and Art’s former best friend. The action of the film deals with Tashi’s early years playing for Stanford as a college player who suffers a career-ending injury on the court and how she scrabbles her way back up by falling in lust with, first, Zweig and then settling with the more mature, disciplined man, Donaldson. There are steamy moments in which bodies are gloriously put on display, especially between the two young men, who are seen to great effect in a sauna scene and thrashing on the tennis court, sweating and glistening and grunting.

My main quibble with the film is the jarring score by Trent Reznor and Atticus (my cat’s name) Ross that intrudes on several important scenes between the principals where you can’t hear the dialogue because of the loud music. Maybe the director didn’t think that much of the dialogue having so much weight during these scenes, but for me, the score was a major distraction. O’Connor as the more sleazy of the two characters eats the scenery with a leer and a smile. He’s the one who doesn’t take the game of tennis as seriously as his former friend, Art, even though at the end of the film, he announces to Tashi that he’s tired and wants to retire from the game. It’s his wife who tells him if he does this, she’ll leave him. For her character, sex, love, and tennis are inextricably entwined. She can’t divorce herself from the game as the two male characters seem to be able to do.

The film ends on a breathtaking moment as the cinematography is pushed to the max, switching to the point of view of the players, and fast cutting, building to a very climactic conclusion. At one point, it appears as if the camera is inside a tennis ball, and we, the audience, are figuratively bounced back and forth with every strike of the racket. I was almost dizzy from watching this scene unfold.

And I don’t even follow tennis!

When we got back to the apartment, Elliot was already home. He mumbled hello to Jake from the bedroom and we continued to sit in the living room.

I boiled water for tea and served Jake the Passover seven-layer cake I bought at Foodtown. Surprisingly, Jake enjoyed the cake so much that he asked for three slices. Fine with me, the holiday is over on Tuesday.

I asked to view the taping of Svengoolie that I missed at 8, and we began watching tow episodes from Trilogy of Terror, a former made-for-TV film from the early 70s starring Karen Black in all three episodes. Then it was time for Jake to bid me adieu and drive home to Central Islip.

It’s late here, as I spent almost 90 minutes being distracted by a MSNBC two-hour special called Commitment to Life that chronicled the true story of the fight against HIV/AIDS in Los Angeles during the 80s and later years. After watching it, I was again struck by how intrepid film star Elizabeth Taylor was in her commitment to battling the hysteria and prejudice experienced by people struggling with the disease in the early 80s. She became the public face of the fight against the illness, as she was instrumental in raising awareness of the disease and raising millions of dollars for research into finding a cure for it. I also saw how former President Ronald Reagan was a villain in the whole sad story, as he refused to even acknowledge the disease and its dread toll for many years into the epidemic. In my book, I never thought he was such a great president anyway. For this reason and many others.

It’s another week. So have a good one; tomorrow is supposed to be in the 80s, actually.

Stay safe and be well.