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n MAY RELEASES n
(“Moonlight”), who directs every episode.
Like the book, the series depicts an alternate
history of America’s 19th century South,
where an escape route for slaves features
a literal — rather than metaphorical —
subterranean railroad. South African actress
Thuso Mbedu, a newcomer to American
audiences, plays the lead role of Cora, while
Chase W. Dillon, Joel Edgerton, Aaron Pierre,
Lily Rabe, and The Good Place’s William
Jackson Harper also star.
N CRUELLA
AN UNEXPECTED LIFE
By Julianna Margulies
May 4
As a bubbly child, Julianna was
bestowed with the family nickname
“Sunshine Girl.” Shuttled back and forth
between her divorced parents, often on
different continents, she quickly learned how
to be of value to her eccentric mother and her
absent father. Raised in fairly unconventional
ways in various homes in Paris, England, New
York, and New Hampshire, Julianna found
that her role among the surrounding turmoil
and uncertainty was to comfort those around
her, seeking organization among the disorder,
making her way in the world as a young adult
and eventually an award-winning actress.
N SECOND PLACE
By Rachel Cusk
May 4
A woman invites a famous artist to use her
guesthouse in the remote coastal landscape
where she lives with her family. Powerfully
May 28
Disney+
Disney’s latest live-action remake of one of
its animated classics stars Emma Stone as 101
Dalmatians villain Cruella de Vil —a character
previously portrayed by Glenn Close in two
previous live-action remakes — in an origin
story set in 1970s London. Viewers can
expect a slightly less comedic and more adult
take, given the film’s rare-for-Disney PG-13
rating. Craig Gillespie (“I, Tonya”) directs a
cast that also features Emma Thompson, Paul
Walter Hauser and Kirby Howell-Baptiste.
N SUNSHINE GIRL:
BOOKS
drawn to his paintings, she believes his vision
might penetrate the mystery at the center
of her life. But as a long, dry summer sets
in, his presence itself becomes an enigma
— and disrupts the calm of her secluded
household. “Second Place” is a study of
fate and privilege, the intricacies of human
relationships, and the moral questions that
animate our lives. It reminds us of art’s
capacity to uplift, and to destroy.
N GREAT CIRCLE
By Maggie Shipstead
May 25
After being rescued as infants from a
sinking ocean liner in 1914, Marian and
Jamie Graves are raised by their dissolute
uncle in Missoula, Montana. There — after
encountering a pair of barnstorming pilots
passing through town in beat-up biplanes
— Marian commences her lifelong love
affair with flight. At fourteen she drops out
of school and finds an unexpected and
dangerous patron in a wealthy bootlegger
who provides a plane and subsidizes her
lessons, an arrangement that will haunt her
for the rest of her life, even as it allows her to
fulfill her destiny: circumnavigating the globe
by flying over the North and South Poles.
MAY 2021 | COBB LIFE 57