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What the world has been lacking for quite some time now are original films. Films that aren’t like anything else, that don’t adhere to the strict checklist of what Hollywood deems the recipe to success. Films that don’t just break the rules, they completely ignore them and instead write some of their own. Films like, Tuesday. The film, directed by Daina Oniunas-Pusić was an original film when I hungered for nothing more than to be moved by a story I hadn’t already been told over and over. It was beautiful and powerful but more than that it said something about the human condition that is more often than not too hard to put into words. Sue me, I cried. More than once.
The film deals heavily with themes of life and death and what it means to be a parent who is fighting for the life of their child, and losing. It’s quite heavy at times but never handled in a way that makes light of what’s happening, it faces all of it head on. Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays Zora, the single mother of Tuesday (Lola Petticrew), a disabled teen who is on the way out and visited by Death in the form of a size-changing (and rap appreciating) macaw, voiced by Arinze Kene. Zora isn’t ready to give up on Tuesday and takes steps to assure that Death will be left wanting. Of course, eventually Death will come for us all but knowing that time is limited and having a chance to say goodbye and prepare, doesn’t make it hurt any less.
Cheat Death, Tell It A Joke
When Death arrives, drawn to Tuesday by hearing her labored breathing and feeling the immense amount of pain that she’s in, the first thing Tuesday does is to tell Death a joke. They hit it off, they were fast friends but that didn’t change the job that Death had to do. It was simply Tuesday’s time. She was however able to make a deal with Death that would allow her to say goodbye to her mom, Zora. While the two new friends are wasting time, waiting for Zora to come home we learn many things about them both – Death loves rap and Tuesday is ready for her pain to stop. Of course Zora had a thing or two to say about that second thing, basically capturing then eating Death. Literally. I’m sure it will be fine, what could possibly go wrong?
source: A24
Everything went wrong. Without Death out and about and doing its job, nothing could die. No matter what happened. The news was giving reports of zombie cows and stab victims unable to die. People were begging for relief but of course none could come, Zora ate their hope for an ending. Flies were getting worse and worse, which was a little detail I really loved, normally a very short lifespan and so many born at a time to replace their dead, they were kind of slowly taking over. It was all very apocalyptic without ever leaning too hard into that, it was subtle and I loved it for that.
Good Grief, Bad Grief, It’s All Grief
Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays Zora with the fierceness of a parent who is willing to do anything to save the life of her child but before she can arrive at that point we get to see what her life had become. She was a single mother who was facing the slow end to the life of her child, she buried herself in her work and ignored reality as much as she could. She was trying, in her own way, to cope and was failing as a mother and failing to truly prepare for the end. It was only when Death literally showed up that she was forced to begin to accept what will eventually happen to us all. Of course, like I said, she didn’t really take that well either and ate Death leaving the rest of the world to suffer on living.
Slowly it is revealed that Death is in fact alive and well inside Zora and Tuesday explains that Zora is going to have to do the job, to give the living that shouldn’t be living their ending. Lola Petticrew was amazing as Tuesday, her performance was believable and heartbreaking. She was disabled and she was in pain constantly but she was also smart and funny and opinionated and tired. Mostly she was tired. Tired of her mother’s absence and neglect and tired of her pain and having to struggle through every day. She was the only one who was ready for the end. Her and Death made a deal after all, you can’t go back on a deal.
source: A24
Tuesday was shot beautifully and full of symbolism. Daina Oniunas-Pusić made a gorgeous film and filled it so full of story and heart it was hard to look away even when I knew that something sad might be just around the corner. She was able to pull tears out of me on more than one occasion and I would like to say that that isn’t an easy thing to do but I know someone who would fully disagree with me. It is however hard to make me ugly cry and I’m not saying whether or not I did that but I am mentioning it, so, use your imagination.
Big Finale
Moving on is hard but we all eventually will. We never forget but we do continue. Death is only painful for the living and this film, at its heart, was telling us that an afterlife exists. It isn’t for the dead. Their afterlife is what we the living choose to do to remember them. How we can honor their memory and celebrate their lives. They live on because we live on and choose not to forget them. We keep them alive in our hearts and memories. Tuesday was a beautiful and moving film, if you haven’t seen it, you need to and you need to tell five friends to do the same. It isn’t often that a film comes along and blows me away with its artistry but this is one of those time. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I have something in my eye again.
Tuesday was released in theaters on June 14, 2024 and will be released VOD on October 11, 2024!
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