‘Luca’
I wasn’t expecting a Pixar movie to make me yearn for a vacation to the Italian coast, but Luca is gorgeous enough to pose a threat to my bank account. Taking place in the fictional Italian town of Porto Rosso in the 1950s, the plot follows two young sea monsters (voiced by Jacob Tremblay and Jack Dylan Grazer) who are best friends and get into all kinds of best friend shenanigans. Like, for instance, posing as human children in order to enter a triathlon in the hopes of winning enough money to buy a Vespa. Unlike Pixar’s more ambitious films, Luca keeps things simple and whimsical. It doesn’t try to explain the meaning of life, but it does give you room to breathe. Luca is the perfect take-it-easy watch for a lazy summer afternoon.