Over the past 15 years, Italian director Luca Guadagnino has established himself in global cinema as a master of detailing interpersonal connection via the human body. In A Bigger Splash, we watch his poolside characters shed their clothes until they’re bare enough to cross emotional and physical lines– highlighted by an ecstatic Ralph Fiennes performance. Call Me By Your Name juxtaposes the pencil frame of Timothee Chalamet next to the round, hardened muscles and square jaw of Armie Hammer, letting the distance of desire shrink until they finally envelope each other. The dancing in his remake of Suspiria is all violent thrashes of hair and limbs, and eventually makes a complete 180, positioning the body into the grotesque. And Bones and All is a teen romance about cannibals, with ample time dedicated to the looks and smells of who might taste the best. He also loves sweat, using the warm climates and summer settings of many of his pictures to add that subtle, sexy glisten to to his actors at just the right time.

The first shot of Challengers— his latest, finally released after delays due to the WGA and SAG strikes of last summer– presents no counter to this argument. In hyper-definition and slow motion, giant drops of perspiration fall off the faces of Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) and Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor), who are in the middle of what has to be the most intense tennis match imaginable. A stunning face wearing a bob haircut sits exactly at center court, her head turning singularly and not in cadence with the ball or the crowd she’s amongst, expressing stress and consternation across her brow. The shot pulls wide– Melbourne, Paris, London, Queens, this is not. We’re in New Rochelle, New York, at the 2019 Phil’s Tire Town Challenger. As evidenced in any and all pieces of marketing for the film, this is not just a movie about tennis, and exploring just how these three ended up in this exact moment together is where the film takes off.

Led by a rip-roaring, beat-heavy score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, we are whipped back to the mid-2000’s. Art and Patrick are inseparable best friends and doubles partners. They win the U.S. Open Junior Men’s Doubles title and quickly run the grounds to catch the Junior Women’s Championship match. As they settle into their seats, the music turns up, and Tashi Duncan (Zendaya) steps onto the court. A miraculous point is played by Tashi, and as she releases a guttural scream, “Come on!”, the two boys are caught gripping onto each other, completely enraptured by what they just saw. When the three finally meet at a party that night, they all start to flourish. Watching these two dopes stumble over each other to get even a few minutes of her attention is comedic gold, and establishes both with innocence rather than testosterone fueled bullshit– at least for now. Art and Patrick pull off the unthinkable and convince her to come to their hotel room long into the night. They drink some beers, act a fool, and eventually Tashi once again takes center stage. She sits on the bed, gestures both guys up next to her, and slowly kisses them one at a time. Guadagnino doesn’t force or rush anything here, and as the characters get more accustomed to each other’s mouths, Tashi turns both of them onto her, until she slowly, carefully backs away, leaving both confused, blue, and embarrassingly hard. She’ll be at the Junior Men’s Championship tomorrow to watch them go head to head, and they better play some good fucking tennis for her.

After the Junior’s Championship, the film bounces the trio from college age through adulthood, honing us in on the ebbs and flows of their relationships as a whole and individually. Patrick immediately turns Pro. Tashi gets injured playing at Stanford; Art is there for her. Art struggles on the Tour after turning Pro and enlists Tashi as his coach. Tashi enlists Art as her husband. Patrick drifts in and out, a reminder to both of what they used to be, and what they might actually want. Screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes and editor Marco Costa volley the story between time periods, giving the film an inescapable energy from the uncertainty of which shot might be played next. If the script is a rally, the match in New Rochelle is the racket, with each strike sending us (the ball) to another defining moment, only to be zipped right back to see how it relates to the present.

There is so much to love about this, from the broad strokes to the minute details. The use of food, clothing, and media, are all handled with the utmost of thought in how each can reflect something about a character. Guadagnino’s wildly energetic collaboration with cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom brings you inside the eyes of the players, the hearts of the lovers, and the play on the courts. The leads radiate off the screen and the camera never looks away. Each swing serves as a drop of water on the driest of tongues. Everyone is begging to be satiated– emotionally, professionally, gastronomically, and of course sexually. It’s a scintillating work of cinematic edging, and when Guadagnino lets them blow, oh is it spectacular.

Available in theaters.