Complicated interpersonal history gets tangled with the competitive drive of pro tennis in this intense round of action on and off the court.

Smart, seductive and bristling with sexual tension, Challengers is arguably Luca Guadagnino’s most purely pleasurable film to date; it’s certainly his lightest and most playful. As agile and dynamic as the many tennis matches it depicts, the love-triangle drama pits the rivalry on the court of two former best friends against their competing desire for a self-possessed woman whose hunger to win is not diminished by a knee injury that cuts short her own career. It helps that the chemistry of stars Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist is off the charts.

This is one of the most ravenously sexy American movies in recent memory, an aspect fueled throughout by the hard-driving beats of a hypnotic techno score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, which recalls everything from disco-era Giorgio Moroder to the pulse-pounding EDM of the 21st century’s first two decades, when the story is set. Rather than grab a racket and hit the tennis court, this is a movie that makes you want to get up and dance. Sharp sound work is another essential element, capturing every thwack of the ball with visceral force.

What Tashi doesn’t factor on is the presence of Patrick Zweig (O’Connor). He and Art were best friends from the age of 12, when they met as roommates at a tennis academy and earned the nickname on the courts of “Fire and Ice.” But the two guys had a bitter falling out, during which Tashi switched her romantic attentions from Patrick to Art. Patrick never quite made the big leagues and is now more or less washed up, sleeping in his car and scrounging for food while counting on prize money, or at least an entrant’s fee, to get him to the next match. But once he’s facing Art across the net, his urge to win becomes more consuming.

In terms of nuts-and-bolts narrative, Challengers is relatively thin. But the psychosexual power plays keep it pinging, as do the nuances folded into the protagonists by three magnetic actors at the top of their game. Clearly, Guadagnino’s interest lies more in relationships, in the gamesmanship of desire than the sportsmanship of tennis.

When Art and Patrick first encounter Tashi she’s an 18-year-old prodigy headed to play college tennis at Stanford, where she’ll become known as “The Duncanator.” “She’s the hottest woman I’ve ever seen,” Patrick tells Art, as Tashi strides onto the court to a roar of approval from the crowd. They watch from the stands, slack-jawed with admiration — and lust — as she obliterates her German opponent. “I’d let her fuck me with a racket,” adds Patrick.

Later that same night, in the guys’ hotel room, Tashi enjoys the control she has over them, deftly coaxing out the unacknowledged homoerotic tension between them during a steamy three-way kiss. It’s a gorgeous interlude, crucial to the film’s punchy trifurcated union, with Zendaya divinely in command as Tashi keeps them guessing about which one she will choose. That’s if she even does choose one, since she half-jokingly informs them she doesn’t want to be “a homewrecker.”

What’s refreshing about it is that Art and Patrick are such a tight twosome that, at least in the early stages, there’s no one-upmanship in their respective efforts to charm her. Even in a match where they play for the privilege of dating her, the competitive edge never obscures their friendship.

While the subconscious physical attraction between the two guys gets largely nudged aside by the development of their respective relationships with Tashi, Guadagnino and the actors slyly keep that queer undercurrent in play. It’s there in every discussion between Art and Patrick, often huddled close together, not to mention in the amusing frequency with which they bite down on phallic foods – hot dogs, churros, a banana. A terrific sauna scene when their long estrangement has bred hostility is notable for the thin line separating sexual tension from cruelty.