Luca “Director of Desire” Guadagnino’s tennis movie isn’t really about the sport, you see, because as the lovely but perpetually frowning Zendaya points out early on to co-stars and fellow racketeers Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor, tennis isn’t a sport, it’s a relationship. To the point where, while she’s putting the “relations” in her relationship with O’Connor a bit later on, she can’t stop talking about tennis — specifically, how good Faist has gotten lately, and how O’Connor should maybe stop his bitching about the pro tour and start being a winner — and when he asks her to pause, she stops with the sexytimes as well. Because for all her talk of that special place you go when you and your opponent find the zone together, the only relationship dynamic that seems to move her is competition. You want harmony and understanding? Forget marriage and children, and maybe look to your own gender. Male-female is strictly about who’s on top. Anyway, the action opens with a match between two old enemies who are even older friends: one maybe toppling from the heights, one looking for a last shot at ascent. And a lady at center court exchanging glances with the both of them. Then it’s into the past we go to find out how we got here, and to learn that these three aren’t so much characters in a relationship as attitudes in argument — attitudes enfleshed in beautiful bodies that sweat buckets when the script calls for it. See: the absurdly drawn-out final showdown, which relies on you having been thoroughly seduced by what’s come before, such that you never want the hard-swinging action to end. Guadagnino knows how to make people very, very attractive. But that’s not the same as interesting. (2024) — Matthew Lickona