I am a big fan of movies that take creative risks, especially when they actually work! Tuesday is one of those films. It is a small film, a very courageous first feature from Croatian writer/director Daina O. Pusić. The Tuesday of the title is a dying teenager (Lola Petticrew) whose mother Zora (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) would rather pretend that it isn’t happening. But when death comes calling in the form of a giant macaw (voiced by Arinzé Kene), Tuesday makes friends with it buying herself a bit more time, but Zora decides the best thing to do is fight tooth and nail. It is a strangely satisfying mother-daughter-death story told with a great dollop of magic realism.
It isn’t possible to say what happens in the film without ruining the discovery of watching. Suffice to say, it is strange and sad, yet uplifting, and unlike anything else you’ve seen. The bird shrinks and expands and is sometimes funny, even rapping at one point, a far cry from Ingmar Bergman’s version of death. But it is Zora’s story, the mother who would do anything to save her daughter. And Louis-Dreyfus is fabulous in the role, moving her solidly into the dramatic realm. The film also has me looking forward to whatever comes next from the fertile mind of writer-director Pusić, as she treads in the footsteps of Charlie Kaufman and Yorgos Lanthimos. This is a very impressive debut!
Look for it on your favorite VOD sites.