Tuesday ★★★★

Released: 9th August 2024

Director: Daina O. Pusić

Starring: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Lola Petticrew, Leah Harvey, Arinzé Kene

Review By: William Reynolds

Tuesday is a creatively bold and self-assured debut feature by Daina O. Pusić which adds a new dimension to tackling the familiar subject of grief. It’s a radical rendering of death, personifying it as a talking macaw parrot which opens doors for beautifully honest and emotionally devastating dialogue of a mother confronting her daughter’s death.

The film opens with the seemingly bizarre talking parrot, Death (voiced by Arinzé Kene) flying in to end the life of the titular character, Tuesday (Lola Petticrew). As a self assured teenager she has already contemplated what it will mean for her life to end and her acceptance of Death creates a calming effect enabling the two to playfully converse. Death allows Tuesday the time to say a final goodbye to her mother, Zora (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). Zora has understandably been distressed faced with the thought of losing her only daughter. She has been selling the household possessions to pay for her daughter’s nursing care, spending the time each day where she is supposedly at work being avoidant of the reality she is facing. 

The film both recognises the debilitating effects of grief for the mother whilst also giving agency to Tuesday who is suffering. There’s moments of raw emotion where Tuesday berates her mother for centring herself when she is the one suffering. Juxtaposed with scenes of tender care where mother and daughter create space to be vulnerable with each other and express the painful thoughts they have had to confront, a daughter worried about what comes next for her mother and a mother so wrapped in grieving for her daughter it has consumed her very identity. Tuesday grants a beautiful catharsis, reminding audiences to treasure the things they can control like the time they spend with those most important to them.

It would be neglectful of me to not speak further on Death as a shape shifting, talking parrot. It is a bold risk to try and personify Death which to some will play as far too nonsensical and on-the-nose. Yet the absurdity and surrealism compounds how fundamentally unexplainable and difficult contending with our very mortality is. By no means does the film achieve a complete philosophical thesis towards death but by personifying it, it creates a fascinating narrative tool to allow our characters to navigate difficult-to conceptualise conversations tackling the brevity of life and finality of death. 

Ultimately, Tuesday works as a film because it is anchored by two phenomenal central performances that add gravitas to the mother-daughter relationship; resulting in some incredibly poignant conversations you are latched onto for every word. When the film attempts to go wider in scope to confront more heady questions regarding mortality the creative licence can feel too stretched. However it’s a remarkable debut feature which dares to experiment in a landscape of films that are becoming more and more homogeneous. As the age-old saying goes, death comes for us all and this adds another unique perspective imploring us to live life on our own terms, for not just ourselves but also for the ones who no longer can.