Thanks Paul

Happy long weekend to you. I was planning to recommend Furiosa, the new Mad Max movie to you, but after watching it yesterday, I cannot in good conscience do so. Chris Hemsworth is fantastic, so when it comes out on streaming you should watch it for him. But Anya Taylor-Joy doesn't have enough to do, and it's an hour too long. Ah well. In its place, you're getting a movie from 1938 because I'm a contrarian.

🎥 Bringing Up Baby (Tubi)
Man, movies used to be very... different. I could see Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig dropping into this set, but even they would be like, "Woah there guys, dial it back a bit." The rapid-fire banter between Cary Grant and Kathrine Hepburn is epic—at times my brain literally couldn't keep up. But Hepburn's character is, god forgive me, grating as hell. The few times she wasn't on screen were like a warm bath for my ears. There was also a leopard - you read that right - that I was gravely concerned for any time it appeared, 1938 not being an enlightened age of animal treatment. When it was all over, I needed to take several deep breaths and wonder what in the hell I just experienced. Quite the ride!

📖 The Bee Sting
Two novels written by Irishmen named Paul were nominated for the prestigious Booker Prize last year, and this is one of them. The other one was Prophet Song, which I reviewed a few weeks ago. I liked that one slightly better but they're both good in their own way, so I wish to start no war between the Irish Pauls. The Bee Sting is a tad long. Actually, at 650 pages it's damn long, no tad about it. It could have used a more stern editor. But that doesn't take away from its inventive storytelling. It feels like he decided on the basic story and then worked mightily to loop it in and out and on top of itself. Very interested to hear what you think if you read this.

📺 Ripley (Netflix)
I've only watched 2 episodes of this but am thoroughly enjoying it so far. First off, it's drop-dead gorgeous, shot in black and white and set in 60s-era Italy. My eyes are eating it up. It's a re-telling of The Talented Mr. Ripley, based on the book, so it's fun to watch other actors' interpretation. Dakota Fanning, for instance, could not be playing Margie more different than Gwyneth Paltrow did. And it's Hot Priest in the starring role. What more do you need?

Oh, new season of The Bear out June 27! Eee! Here's the trailer.

xoxo,
Carla