Hollywood has had a fascination with death and where one goes when they die for years. It’s always been an interesting subject to make movies about. Sometimes they’re good, and other times, they’re not. In the case of Tuesday, the latest A24 release, it’s one of the best films I’ve ever seen about dealing with impending death and its repercussions for those surrounded or adjacent to said impending death.

Tuesday (Lola Petticrew) is a very sick teenager in London,  England. She has her own nurse, Billie (Leah Harvey), who helps her cope with her impending death. Her mother, Zora (Julie Louis Dreyfuss), on the other hand, isn’t dealing with the potential death of her only child. When the existential embodiment of death comes calling for Tuesday, things start to get a little difficult and strange for everyone involved. 

The director, Diana Oniunas Pusic, chooses to show the embodiment of death to the main character so she can progress. She plays music, tells stories, and tries to make a case for herself for not dying. In the process, she helps Death voiced by (Arinze Kene) by washing some glue off his foot and giving him a bath to clean himself up. He becomes friends with her and even talks, which he hasn’t done in many years. He has genuinely become attached to her. It’s inevitable that she must die, though. That’s the predicament he is in regarding Tuesday. 

Another factor in all of this is how her mother is going to handle the fact that her daughter is going to die. No mother is going to take the impending death of her child lightly.  This one definitely doesn’t. She sells as much of her stuff as she can to try to afford the nurse and her daughter’s medical care. She even quits her job to devote more time to her daughter. When the time comes when she must finally let go, she can’t. It’s very hard on her. This plays a huge part in the second half of the film.

The three main cast members are very good in this movie. Petticrew and Dreyfuss are the standouts, but Harvey is good in a smaller role with Kene doing a good jobon the voice of Death. With the gravity of this story, there is a suspension of disbelief that the actors have to have. They are acting opposite a CGI character, and that isn’t easy. There are different variables that are used with all the characters in the film, including Death itself. The acting is exceptional from the two leads and the voice actor of Death. This couldn’t have been easy on any of them for what they had to deal with. 

I’ve been thinking about death a little bit over the last few years and how my own personal death will affect those who care about me or how my enemies might react to my passing. Even when you don’t think people would care about your death, you’d be wrong. With every person’s death, there are repercussions and ripple effects that reverberate for weeks and months to come. People inevitably mourn for those who have gone. Even ones who might have been hated by some are loved by others. It’s one of the most difficult things to deal with in the world. The mother and daughter have their own ways of dealing with this impending death portrayed in the film. I’ve never seen death depicted in quite this way before. It’s one of the most original stories involving death and how people deal with it I’ve ever seen. I was genuinely moved by what I watched in this movie.

A24 is one of the best studios making films right now. Just this year, they’ve had some incredible movies. Love Lies Bleeding, a period thriller starring Katy O’Brian and Kristen Stewart,  Civil War, a look at the potential future of our country starring Kirsten Bunst and Cailee Spaeny and now Tuesday about about how families deal with impending death starring Lola Petticrew and Julie Louis Dreyfuss, with I Saw the TV Glow and Maxxine still to come this first half of 2024. Tuesday might not be the most accessible of the bunch, but it is important nonetheless. This studio keeps amazing me with the films they make internally and the ones they buy from festivals.  They are one of the best studios in the movie business today. The last two years alone show that.

I went into Tuesday with no preconceived notions. I hadn’t heard much about it besides it starred Dreyfuss and it was very good. With the caveat , it was an A24 film which peaked my curiosity.  I was blown away by the story and how the writer/director was able to tell such an intimate story about impending death in such an amazing way. It gave me a whole new outlook on life and fighting for every breath. The three main cast members were all very good, with the two leads Petticrew and Dreyfuss the standouts. The visual effects were also handled very well. It’s hard to get your head around the embodiment of death on screen, but once you accept it and move on with the story and characters your fine.  This is a movie I won’t soon forget, and A24 is hitting on all cylinders right now. I urge as many people as possible to go out and see Tuesday when it premieres in theaters.

5 stars

Dan Skip Allen