Benjamin Ashford|What to watch: YES, CHEF! (Or, 'The Bear' is back)

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Cousin, if you're into super-stressful kitchen situations and/or alien invasions where folks have to be really, really quiet, you're living right these days.

Tear into a beef sandwich, get yourself some popcorn and find a good seat because Watch Party has returned with the best viewing recs around. (Yes, the fjords were fjire in Norway last week on my European jaunt but it's nice to be back in the saddle.) June's ending on a pretty high note for all of us, with an Emmy-winning recipe for great TV drama courtesy of "The Bear," a dip back into the "Quiet Place" sci-fi universe and the latest starry dish from the hot arthouse duo of Oscar favorite Emma Stone and director Yorgos Lanthimos.

Stream the new season of 'The Bear' and a Celine Dion documentary

Good news: Mercurial chef Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) made it out of that walk-in fridge on "The Bear." Bad news (for him, still good for us): He continues to be five minutes away from a nervous breakdown at all times in Season 3 (streaming on Hulu). The new episodes again feature experimental narratives, A-list guest stars and great character interactions. Check out TV critic Kelly Lawler's ★★★ review, which calls the new season "chewy, delicious and overindulgent."

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And while you're streaming, be sure to give the documentary "I Am: Celine Dion" (now on Prime Video) a go, too. The movie powerfully shows the superstar singer's painful struggles with the neurological disorder stiff person syndrome, including a harrowing moment where Dion suffers a seizure that plays out in real time. “As Celine likes to say, ‘Do not flinch.’ And we did not flinch,” director Irene Taylor tells music critic Melissa Ruggieri.

Watch Lupita Nyong'o and her cat contend with a city of monsters in 'A Quiet Place: Day One'

After the first two "Quiet Place" movies put an innovative spin on the extraterrestrial apocalypse, the new prequel rewinds to the beginning, with Lupita Nyong'o and Joseph Quinn on a quest for survival and New York City pizza in the first days of a deadly invasion. It's OK as spinoffs go, not doing as much with sound design as the previous films. (Be a friend, tell a friend: Like the others, this is not the movie for loud popcorn-chomping.) But Nyong'o, in her best role since "Us," gives her all as the movie's embattled and sturdy heart.

Plus, her character's cat is the best. "What I don’t get is how people could be more invested in the cat than us! That’s hard to take for my ego," the "Black Panther" star tells my colleague Patrick Ryan.

Get weird with Jesse Plemons in 'Kinds of Kindness' and saddle up with Kevin Costner's 'Horizon'

We here at Watch Party Central have been Jesse Plemons fans since "Friday Night Lights." We also dig cinematic weirdness. So there's a lot to love about the anthology movie "Kinds of Kindness," which features an odd triptych of stories starring Plemons, Emma Stone (reteaming with her "Poor Things" director), Willem Dafoe and others.

Also new in theaters is the three-hour (yeah, crazy long for a summer movie) first part of Kevin Costner's multi-chapter Western epic "Horizon: An American Saga." It's a big risk for the Oscar-winning director/actor, having sunk a lot of his personal wealth into making it. Costner told USA TODAY's Bryan Alexander that he won't be hitting up a local theater for a screening. "I might be on my back somewhere, just rolled up in a fetal position," he jokes. "I know ("Horizon") will be watched. To what degree, that's what we'll see, right?"

Even more goodness to check out!

• We talked with 77-year-old fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg about her new Hulu documentary "Woman in Charge."
• Tom Hardy is the best thing about "The Bikeriders." But you might be surprised by the inspiration behind his biker-gang leader's voice.
• For those who've binged the new season of Netflix's "Bridgerton": Author Julia Quinn understands why fans are disappointed by the gender-swap of this favorite character.
• Love a good trailer? Peep some fresh footage from director Robert Zemeckis' newest effort "Here" (aka the "Forrest Gump" reunion) with a de-aged Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, as well as Robert Eggers' gothic horror remake of "Nosferatu."

Got thoughts, questions, ideas, concerns, compliments or maybe even some recs for me? Email [email protected] and follow me on the socials: I'm @briantruitt on Twitter (not calling it X!), Instagram and Threads