Tuesday
The directorial debut of Daina O Pusić, Tuesday follows the titular Tuesday (Lola Petticrew), a terminally ill young woman who is visited by Death (voiced by Arinzé Kene) in the form of a bedraggled, size-changing macaw. While most people plead or fight with Death, Tuesday reaches out a hand in friendship, trying to make peace with her eventual fate. However, while Tuesday is in the acceptance stage of her grief, her mother Zora (Julia Louis-Dreyfuss) is still very much in denial, and reacts… poorly upon discovering the spectre of death itself perched on her daughter’s bedframe.
Death is a complicated subject – perhaps the most complicated subject – for any media to examine, particularly as a debut piece, but Tuesday pulls it off well, taking its audience on a journey across the messy, fraught emotional spectrum of grief through its intimate charting of Tuesday and Zora’s compelling character arcs.
There’s an interesting mix of tones here: tragedy goes hand in hand with comedy, and Tuesday acknowledges this relationship, deftly and confidently mixing absurd and surreal comedy into its mediations on life and death. This is a delicate balance to pull off, but it’s a testament to Pusić’s writing and directing that the film’s distinct tones don’t get in the way of each other. Rather, its comedy works to bring out its tragedy, and vice-versa, with both being supported by mind-bending special effects and creative cinematography.
As a tight character study, Tuesday’s multi-faceted narrative needed a lot of work from its cast to land its various emotional beats. Thankfully, they go above and beyond to serve the movie’s ambitious narrative: Louis-Dreyfuss and Petticrew are fantastic foils to each other, both putting on brave faces behind layers of facades in subtly distinct ways and bouncing off each other in constantly shifting dynamics throughout the film. Kene also puts on a great performance as Death, imbuing the character with surprising levels of depth and pathos.
Overall, Tuesday is a very strong debut for Pusić as a director and a writer, demonstrating a willingness to dive deep into complex topics and explore them thoroughly, as well as a knack for strong character writing and an effective balance of comedy and pathos. It’s off-beat and enthusiastically weird – perhaps a little janky in places, but that jank becomes a part of the film’s messy charm, complementing its unusual approach to storytelling.
Umar Ali
Tuesday is released nationwide on 9th August 2024.
Watch the trailer for Tuesday here:
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