★★★★

Sweaty, muscular and desperately horny, Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers lusts in the fashion of an old courtly romance. The emphasis is on the court – it’s a tennis film – but the romance is as pervasive as it is dripping in the erotic energy of unquenched climax. Every game is intercourse. As befitting the Chaucerian tradition, there are knights, jousts and a fair maiden worth fighting for. More modern is the youthful vibrance of the piece. Guadagnino’s cast are electric but it’s his own reinvention of point of view filmmaking that drives forth the avant-garde vigour.