Fairy tales have always dealt with heavy topics. Children still need to know about complex issues, and sometimes, couching those issues in a fantastical world can make them easier to understand. That remains true for adults. High fantasy stories can cause us to engage with topics that we might otherwise ignore because of our discomfort. In her first feature-length film, Tuesday, writer and director Daina Oniunas-Pusic uses this kind of storytelling to talk about the death of a child.
The imagery of a bird as a harbinger of death or an embodiment of death is nothing new, with black birds like crows or ravens shouldering most of the weight. In Tuesday, Oniunas-Pusic uses a size-shifting parrot as her symbol. So when Death (voiced by Arinzé Kene, Love Again) comes for Tuesday (Lola Petticrew, She Said), it takes only a moment for her to realize who he is. What was lovely in this early meeting was that while fear was present, the bulk of Tuesday’s response was a desire to offer comfort and to put off what was coming until she could say goodbye to her mother.
Meanwhile, Zora (Julia Louis-Dreyfus, You Hurt My Feelings) is doing everything she can to avoid dealing with the reality of her daughter’s illness. She spends her days pretending to go to work while slowly selling off bits and pieces of their life so that she can afford her daughter’s medical expenses. We see her sitting at the edge of the water, ignoring Tuesday’s calls. When she arrives home and realizes what is about to happen, she responds with all of the pain that one would expect from a mother about to lose her child.
This can be a difficult film to talk about without giving spoilers for what happens next, but suffice it to say that if you are uncomfortable with a giant talking macaw representing death, it might be hard to get on board with the events of the final two acts of this movie. Tuesday leans into the ideas that it presents and at no point makes it easy for an audience. The themes are relatively straightforward, but the execution is bizarre and will almost certainly make a segment of viewers uncomfortable.
However, if you’re willing to accept the world that Oiunas-Pusic creates, you will be rewarded with something spectacular.
Petticrew gives an impressive turn as Tuesday. They offer us a character who knows she is going to die and is caught between the desire to stay and the desire to go. That liminal space is difficult to convey, and Petticrew threads the needle beautifully.
Likewise, Kene gives us an emotional and thoughtful vocal performance as Death. There is a lot riding on his voice, and he delivers a character that encapsulates many of the emotions that we associate with dying: malevolence, sadness, pain, peace. Despite the somewhat absurd characterization of a parrot, the voice acting grounds this character into something more easily digestible.
A number of supporting characters help flesh out this world, particularly Leah Harvey as Tuesday’s nurse. She acts as the surrogate for the audience, guiding us through this strange and wonderful fairy tale.
But the film hinges on Louis-Dreyfus as Zora, and she delivers one of the most impressive performances of her career. She stays true to her comedic roots, with some truly impressive physical comedy, but her dramatic chops are on full display as well. Whether she is avoiding the issue, trying to protect her child, or fully grieving, Louis-Dreyfus’s emotions are on full display, and she carries the audience with her through this journey.
In addition to an incredible cast, the sound design helps this fim achieve its goals. While not nearly as weighty as the sound work in Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest, sound designer Gunnar Óskarsson’s work in Tuesday includes ambient noise that moves the story alone before we catch up with the unsettling visuals.
At its heart, however, Tuesday is about a parent losing their child. There are certainly larger themes about death and suffering that are explored, but ultimately, it is about one of the most unthinkable moments in a parent’s life.
A decade ago, I lost a child to stillbirth. We were just a few weeks away from meeting this person, and he was taken from us. Even now, long removed from that experience, I still think about him regularly. What would my life look like if he’d lived? Who would he be? How would he get along with his siblings? What fights and joys and laughter and tears would we have experienced? The “what if” of it never really goes away.
I wouldn’t say that Tuesday is comforting, exactly. It’s a weird movie about a macaw that is Death who smokes a joint with a dying kid while they listen to “It Was a Good Day” by Ice Cube. But it’s also about the inevitability of death and making peace with that, and finding ways to honor what we lost. And if you give in to the fairy tale of it all, it does this to great effect.
Tuesday is now streaming.
Learn more about the film, including how to watch, on the A24 site for the title.
You might also like…
‘Kneecap’ Review: A Fresh Musical Biopic