Tuesday
As Jerry Seinfeld might ponder, “What’s the deal with giant anthropomorphic animals in movies this year?”
Back in February, a massive spider voiced by Paul Dano challenged the sanity of Adam Sandler’s cosmonaut in Spaceman. Now a parrot that can change sizes and is actually Death himself (voiced by Arinzé Kene) comes to relieve the pain of terminally ill teen in Tuesday, an imaginative if somewhat obvious allegory from writer Daina Oniunas-Pusic, also making her feature directorial debut.
In territory this fantastical, it's also a bit tough to grasp the laws at play and how to potentially circumnavigate them, so it's best to just go with the flow especially as questions increasingly arise.
Indeed, nothing in the bizarre introduction suggests Death entertains any delays from his “victims,” but for whatever reason he’s disarmed by the eponymous youth (Lola Petticrew, She Said) and her wit and kindness. Perhaps it's the first time anyone has treated him with anything besides terror and revulsion, but he's willing to give her a brief respite until she can say goodbye to her mother Zora (Julia Louis-Dreyfus).
By opening this door, Death gets far more than he bargained for. A living embodiment of the five stages of grief, Zora is aggressively unwilling to part with her daughter and goes to extreme lengths to prolong the inevitable, even when it potentially impacts her own existence.
Louis-Dreyfus’ natural comedic tendencies can't help but shine through, even at inappropriate times. Yet her joking deflections are true to life, reflecting humans’ tendencies to embrace denial through humor, and one wild solution that she concocts to extend her time with Tuesday tantalizingly combines these elements with the surreal, echoing a chapter one might find in a Charlie Kaufman movie.
Beyond these exaggerated creative stretches, however, Tuesday is a bit one-note, though Oniunas-Pusic flexes enough outside-the-box thinking to warrant “rising star” status. It’ll be fun watching where she goes from here.
Grade: B. Rated R. Starts Now playing at Carolina Cinemark and the Fine Arts Theatre.
(Photo: A24)
