Tuesday

“There’s nothing wrong with Tuesday’s main actor of color appearing as a bird rather than as a human, but it’s a creative decision that falls into a longer trend.”

Title: Tuesday (2024)
Director: Daina O. Pusić 👩🏼🇭🇷
Writer: Daina O. Pusić 👩🏼🇭🇷

Reviewed by Li 👩🏻🇺🇸

Technical: 2/5

Within its first frames, A24’s Tuesday quickly establishes itself as a strange and twisted fable: Viewers peer into a galaxy, which pulls back to reveal an eyeball, which pulls back to show a scene of someone on the verge of death. A montage ensues of various individuals conversing with a grotesque, anthropomorphic macaw during their last moments on Earth. The bird, named Death and voiced by Arinzé Kene, becomes a major character—a creature that upends the life of struggling mother Zora (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) as she’s dragged, kicking and screaming, into accepting the fact that Death is coming soon for her terminally ill daughter, Tuesday (Lola Pettigrew).

This dark and surrealist meditation on grief won’t be for everyone, and could have used some tighter editing from Croatian filmmaker Daina O. Pusić in her first-time feature. But Louis-Dreyfus gives a sharp, nuanced, and subtly comedic performance as a mother who refuses to face reality. Regardless of your mileage for experimental indie films, it’s positive to see a young filmmaker take a big creative swing and get enough industry support to bring her fantastical vision to life.

Lola Petticrew. Credit: By Kevin Baker. Courtesy of A24.

Gender: 5/5
Does it pass the Bechdel Test? YES

Written and directed by a female storyteller, Tuesday centers a mother-daughter relationship. Their bond is beautifully conveyed through small, heartwarming vignettes—through a game of charades as the two lounge on the sofa, or as Zora scrubs shampoo through her daughter’s hair.

On top of the narrative focus on women, there’s gender diversity among the cast as well: Tuesday and her in-home caregiver, Nurse Billie, are played by nonbinary actors Petticrew and Leah Harvey, respectively.

Race: 3/5

Pusić’s film focuses on three characters—Zora, Tuesday, and Death. Zora and Tuesday are white whereas Death’s actor, Kene, is Black (Nigerian-born British). But Kene never appears on screen as himself, told entirely through a CGI macaw. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with actors of color voicing non-human characters, it’s a creative decision that falls into a longer trend of obscuring non-white people through CGI and special effects, seen in movies like Guardians of the Galaxy and Avatar or as discussed by writer Monique Jones in her review of The Mandalorian.

We really only see any onscreen diversity through the supporting character Nurse Billie, played by Black and multiracial Londoner Harvey. It’s a bit of a cliche to have Black characters work as caregivers to white clients. That said, Billie isn’t stereotypical or ingratiating: When Zora undergoes an alarming physical transformation, Billie runs off in favor of self-preservation—a preferred outcome to the many Black characters who have come before her, irrationally putting themselves in danger to save white characters. And early in Tuesday, Billie studies a guide on nursing, which subtly demonstrates a sense of her personal goals.

In minor and background roles, Tuesday also recognizes the diversity of its setting in London, showing South Asian and Black actors within its various montages.

(L-R) Leah Harvey, Lola Petticrew. Credit: By Kevin Baker. Courtesy of A24.

Bonus for LGBTQ: +0.50

Queer characters aren’t explicitly present in the film, but as mentioned, actors Petticrew and Harvey are nonbinary. Harvey also describes themself as gay. In addition, a brief scene in the film shows two young men of different ethnicities embracing, implying a same-sex relationship within a normalized context.

Deduction for Disability: -0.25

The movie is named after Tuesday who’s terminally ill, uses a wheelchair, and needs oxygen support—but she’s played by nondisabled actor Petticrew. On its own, inauthentic casting can be balanced out by complex portrayals and interesting narratives for disabled characters. However, Pusić’s script isn’t so focused on its titular character as it is Tuesday’s mother, who’s nondisabled. Zora is the only one who goes through a personal transformation, coming to terms with letting her daughter go over the course of the film. In contrast, Tuesday has been at peace with dying since the start of the movie; her internal conflict has more to do with making sure her mother will be okay after she’s gone.

Thankfully, the film doesn’t lean into the potential trope of disabled characters being “better off dead” too hard. There aren’t any lines about how Tuesday wants to sacrifice herself for her mother, for example. Still, the script’s core plot falls into conventional storytelling patterns of disabled characters dying by the end of the film, and having it portrayed as something they want to happen. Keeping pace with other recent movies about terminal illness, like Suncoast, disability is handled sensitively and with nuance. But these movies remain stubbornly centered around nondisabled protagonists and their emotional journeys.

Mediaversity Grade: C+ 3.42/5

Tuesday is a wonderful presentation of a female filmmaker’s exploration of a mother-daughter relationship, though it isn’t particularly focused on its disabled teen character. Still, the more chances we see upcoming creatives like Pusić get their projects funded and supported by studios, the better we all are for the perspectives they bring. They might not all be home runs, and for me, this film was a little too strange and oblique to hit on an emotional level. But the more these movies get a chance to see the light of day, the better cinema is for it.

Like Tuesday? Try these other titles where Julia Louis-Dreyfus makes an appearance.

Grade: BLiJune 20, 2024Female/Nonbinary Creator, Great for: LGBTQ