“Challengers” Review: Zendaya Stars in a Sensational, Sexy Comedy About Love and Tennis

'The Crown' alum Josh O'Connor and 'West Side Story' actor Mike Faist also star in the film

In his four seasons as narrator of the Netflix comedy Never Have I Ever, former bad-boy tennis star John McEnroe delivered an amiable play-by-play commentary on the coming-of-age of a girl named Devi (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan).

And what might he have had to say in response to the strange, jaw-dropping excitement of Challengers, the erotically charged new film from director Luca Guadagnino (Call Me by Your Name)? Well, he might hoot. He might swear. He might be absolutely speechless.

All valid reactions. Challengers is the most surprising movie of the first half of 2024.

Related: Civil War Review: Kirsten Dunst Plays a Photojournalist Pushed to the Brink in a Searing Vision of a Nation Divided

It starts on a crisp, clear note: Tennis pro Art Donaldson (West Side Story’s Mike Faist, who looks like an AI synthesis of Tom Cruise and comedian John Mulaney) is nearing 40 and feeling little enthusiasm for the game.

His wife and coach, Tashi Duncan (Dune: Part Two’s Zendaya, seldom smiling yet physically dazzling), urges him to enter a low-level tournament in New Rochelle, New York, where he can pull off an easy win. Possible downside: His opponents may be hungrier than he is and eager to score a career-boosting upset.

One such player turns out to be Patrick Zweig (The Crown’s Josh O’Connor), raggedly unkempt and strapped for cash (he sleeps in his car). But Patrick also has a dark, mischievous charisma that eclipses Art’s brand-conscious blandness.

A ball doesn’t have to be fresh out of the canister to have a nice bounce.

Now Challengers ups its game, almost exponentially. The narrative fractures into multiple flashbacks that spell out the enormously complicated backstory of these three, Art, Tashi and Patrick, building toward a heart-stopping finale that places the men on opposite sides of the net while Tashi, like a princess at a jousting tournament, sits smack in the middle.

If tennis is about playing within the lines, Challengers is about boundaries crossed, recrossed and finally erased altogether. It’s a big, vibrant, kick-ass mess.

For one thing, does Tashi love Paul more deeply than she loves Art? And — to add one more plank of triangulation — does Paul love Art? Does Art love Paul? The answer would appear to be yes, but in a complicated way that lands in some indeterminate zone between bromance and Brokeback Mountain.

Challengers is like Women in Love, D.H. Lawrence's masterpiece of hormonal struggle and confusion between men and women (and men and men), only with tennis whites.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. 

Guadagnino (a bit like Lawrence, in fact) has always had a gift for penetrating the thorny briar patch that surrounds romantic and sexual ardor — not only in the acclaimed Call Me by Your Name but also I Am Love, a study in reckless passion starring Tilda Swinton, and Bones and All, a love story about dewy-eyed young cannibals.

None of these prior films, though, have the extraordinary sexual vitality of Challengers.

Tashi sums it all up with her observation that tennis, at its highest level, is a relationship — a point of communion so deep, and apparently orgasmic, it actually makes her yawp when she feels it. To translate that into a score: love-love.

Challengers is in theaters now.

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.