Hello and happy Friday! A big thanks to Act+Acre for sponsoring and unlocking today’s issue for everyone. 🫶

Welcome, new subscribers. Our weekly Friday post is a delightful round-up of recommendations for your downtime and useful/fun things noted from the week. It’s a little dose of joy for your inbox. Enjoy. x

A few things I recommend + noted this week…

• Watching: Challengers (in theaters). As today’s title suggests, I loved this tennis drama starring Zendaya. I haven’t stopped thinking about it, so you'll find my rather rambling thoughts in a dedicated section below. 👇

• I’m also watching: The third season of Hacks (on Max). This season is so much better compared to the first two. Is anyone else watching?

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• Reading: I’ve struggled to find time to read lately - I’m still reading Real Americans by Rachel Khong and loving it. (You can read my interview with the author here.)

• If you’re having people over soon: This might be the perfect recommendation for you: the award-winning LA restaurant Kismet has a new cookbook out, and there’s a whole chapter devoted to dips and schmears with variations of labneh, tahini, and zhoug—plus other shareable plates. Kismet graciously let me share two recipes from the book for my paid subs here. ❤️

Recipes: The Kismet Cookbook Alisha Ramos · May 8 Read full story

• Pretty tableware: This small business has the prettiest curation of European tableware. These radicchio salt and pepper shakers!

• Hot weather pants: I finally found the perfect long linen vest and pants I’ve been looking for. I did a dance when I tried these on. (My one critique is I wish the pants had belt loops.) You could dress this up or down for brunch, dinner, or running errands by switching out the shoes. I got the vest in white, too.¹

• A spa day for your scalp: 🧖‍♀️ My postpartum hair needs some serious TLC—I’ve got some breakage and thinning happening on top of my usual oiliness. When Act+Acre, the viral scalp care brand, reached out to gift some products and sponsor today’s issue, I jumped at the chance and said yes. Please! Help me and my hair! I tested seven products and wanted to share my top 3 picks below…

To help with my hair thinning and give myself a relaxing self-care moment, I’ve been squeezing a few droplets of this popular serum (which promotes thicker, fuller hair) along my hairline, and I use this (gorgeous!) scalp massage tool to comb through gently. I can see myself doing this as a daily scalp care ritual after my skincare and before getting ready for the day. The reviews are promising, and I can’t wait to see the results.

Lastly, I desperately needed something to help with product build-up in my hair. For this, I’m using their pre-wash scalp detox oil, which is more moisturizing and less harsh than my usual scalp scrub. Let me know if you end up trying any of these.

Act+Acre gave me a code! Use “DOWNTIME25” at checkout for 25% off your purchase.²

Looking for more recs? There are 46 other issues to flip through in the archives. You can also give and receive recommendations in our subscriber chat. 💬

Is This The Most Fun Movie of the Year? All My Thoughts on Challengers 🎾

Challengers is a tennis drama about three people stuck in a love triangle of sorts. Art (played by Mike Faist) and Patrick (played by Josh O’Connor) are junior tennis champs and best friends who’ve grown up together. They’re immediately infatuated by Tashi (played by Zendaya), a young tennis star with immense talent. Unfortunately, Tashi’s rapid rise to pro tennis is violently halted after suffering an injury in college. Patrick becomes a washed-up tennis player playing lower-level tournaments, while Art is more successful in his path; he’s won three of the four Grand Slam events. All the while, the trio experiences rocky relationships amongst themselves.

The movie begins and ends at a lower-tier tennis tournament (a “challengers” event) just outside of New York City. Tashi is now Art’s wife and coach, and Patrick, now his ex-best friend (and Tashi’s college ex), is his opponent in the final match. Art is in a career slump and needs this win to boost his confidence. The movie volleys back and forth in time (yes, like a tennis ball), excavating the past and showing the viewer how these three characters have used one another for what they each needed most.

Now, for my rambly thoughts. I’d love to hear yours if you’ve seen the film!

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This movie is FUN.

It’s rare that a movie gets me excited. Even more rare is when I want to watch the movie again immediately. This is how I felt after seeing Challengers last week. This movie is fun. Yes, it’s sexy, too, but I think the trailers and the overall buzz overplayed that. It’s sexy less in a “sex scenes” way and sexy in a more human way. It’s very physical, there’s a lot of sweat, there’s a lot of close-up shots of muscular thighs. The score adds to the fun and is thrilling (a lot of pumped-up house music by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross). Given the intensity of the drama, there are some smart and funny bits in the movie (like the “I TOLD YA” shirt moment) to lighten things up a bit. In one scene, “Hot In Herre” by Nelly plays in its entirety. If that’s not high art, I’m not sure what is.

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The cast is GOOD.

Needless to say, the cast is fantastic. I now have a crush on all three actors.

This was Zendaya’s first time leading a movie at this scale. There were some scenes that could have used work (Zendaya playing the mom of a four-year-old was not so believable), but overall, I hope her performance in this lands her more lead roles. She’s fun to watch.

I wasn’t familiar with Mike Faist, who plays Art, but I was impressed seeing his transformation from a reserved college kid to a confident yet fatigued tennis pro. (Side note - his turnip brooch at the Met was perfect.)

And finally, Josh O’Connor. Whew! I knew of Josh from his performance as Prince Charles in The Crown, but playing a real person is a very different type of acting from understanding a character and translating them onto the screen. I’m glad I got to see him in this type of role—I thought he played the dirty, sweaty, devilish Patrick perfectly. And now we’re all very well acquainted with his thighs and abs. I read that all three actors trained for this film, and let’s just say—we can tell. 🥵

The 🤌cinema🤌 of it all.

If you ever took a film studies class, you might love this movie. The 🤌cinema 🤌 of it all was made to be dissected and analyzed. Director Luca Guadagnino of Call Me By Your Name fame helmed this movie, so unsurprisingly, it’s packed with cinematographic metaphors on top of metaphors—the back-and-forth time-hopping structure of the film as a metaphor for tennis is an obvious one. And true to Guadagnino’s style, there’s plenty of sexual tension between the two male leads.

The movie's ending, which I won’t spoil, made me gasp, exhale, laugh, and wonder what the heck just happened. It’s a fun ending to discuss with your friends; you’ll likely have different interpretations of the scene. You’ll revisit each character’s motivations. There’s a lot that’s left ambiguous. I can’t remember the last time a movie made me think this much.

The rabbit hole I fell down: The Loewe <> Luca Relationship and The Met Gala

I almost cut this part because there’s no real point other than “look at this” but I feel like it might speak to someone out there. The costume designer for Challengers is Jonathan Anderson, the Creative Director at Spanish luxury design house Loewe. (Luca and Jonathan said they met at a hotel in Italy.) I’m just a normie and not a fashion expert, but I can see that Loewe is arguably doing some of the most creative stuff in fashion right now. (See: asparagus bags and skits like this.)

I scratched my head initially because this movie doesn’t feature any “costumes.” They’re just everyday clothes. But this quote in W Magazine from the designer was illuminating:

“If you were to see Tashi outside, in the real world, she is proof that there is something about success that ultimately makes people go toward conformity. As you become more successful, you get to this point where everyone else who is successful has the same luggage or the same jewelry.”

One young woman in our theater gasped at Zendaya’s every outfit change. “She looks so good!” she would hiss. “How does she look so good in everything?!”

And Zendaya did look so good—in all her tennis gear and the perfectly tailored shirtdress she wears to the final match in the movie. To Jonathan’s point, she looks good and boring. It’s impeccable dressing, but it’s all something we’ve seen before. Yet even studied conformity takes the eye of a talented creative director and costume designer to nail perfectly (Tashi uses Agustinus Bader moisturizer, obviously!).

Loewe returned to the top of my mind during this week’s Met Gala. This image floated to the top of my Instagram feed: a selfie on the Loewe bus, which Mike and Josh were on, along with other favorites like Ayo Edebiri and Ambika Mod.

Red carpet favorite Greta Lee also wore Loewe to the Met Gala. (Justin Kuritzkes, the scriptwriter for Challengers, is partnered with Celine Song, who wrote Past Lives, in which Greta Lee stars.) Who is the connective tissue to who in this Loewe-Luca universe?? I’m curious to see if Guadagnino and Anderson’s creative collaboration continues in any of Guadagnino’s upcoming films. (Zendaya was missing from the bus, presumably because her longtime stylist Law Roach styled her in not one but two Galliano dresses.)

Alison Oliver’s presence on the Loewe bus then made me think about her Conversations With Friends co-star Joe Alwyn. But we don’t talk about that anymore.

🎾 🎾 🎾 🎾 🎾 🎾 🎾 🎾 🎾 🎾 🎾 🎾 🎾 🎾 🎾 🎾 🎾 🎾

In summary: go see the movie! Would love to hear what you thought of it in the comments if you’ve seen it already…

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Further listening and reading:

• 🎧 Listen: The Big Picture podcast ep about Challengers

• Read: Zendaya’s press tour style for Challengers - fun! [ So Many Thoughts ]

• Read: Zendaya, Luca Guadagnino, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist on ‘Challengers’ [NYT - paywalled]

• Read: ‘Challengers’ and That Ending: Our Critics Have Thoughts [NYT - paywalled]

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• A reader asked me for ideas on what to wear to her commencement for graduate school—with no budget. Here are my picks, varying from $70 and up.

• Love this charming, tiny kitchen!

• Elle Fanning’s dress at the Met Gala was my favorite. Yours?

Thanks for reading, and have a nice weekend. x Alisha