‘Tuesday’: London Review

Dir. Daina O. Pusic. UK. 2023. 111 mins.

Croatian-born, London-based director Diana O. Pusic reaches for the stars with her feature debut, and the ambitious allegory Tuesday mostly takes flight. A straight-shot three-hander between Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Lola Petticrew and Leah Harvey — plus a macaw’s talons – it is a darkly comic drama which stares death full in the beak. Pusic’s screenplay would challenge a more experienced director, and the film does falter, over-staying its welcome. Pusic’s flex, though, is impressive. Between the extensive VFX creature work – led by Mike Stillwell and Andrew Simmonds - the performances, the tone, and the life-or-death subject matter, experienced shorts director Pusic has given her debut her all, and observers will take note.

Pusic’s realisation is quite remarkable

Whether that translates to wider exposure for distributor A24 – which came in early on Tuesday and stayed throughout the challenges thrown up by Covid-19 – is less certain. This is a film which will mean a great deal to some audiences, namely those who have suffered loss; particularly of a child. That makes it less appealing to others. Its sustained singularity is, in an odd way, reminiscent of a film like Spike Jonze’s Being John Malkovich – if Pusic’s conviction ever faltered, the film would collapse. It never does. Specialist exhibition and distribution channels should come calling after prestigious Telluride and London premieres, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s name will help work those deals.

The child in question, played adroitly by Irish actor Lola Petticrew, is named Tuesday, and she is reaching the end of her life after what seems to have been a long illness. Early, bold and imaginative scenes show how this will happen – death is a macaw, who shape- and size-shifts and comes to us via talented British actor Arinze Kene. Death, his hearing perpetually attuned to the sound of pain and suffering, spreads his wings to mark the last breath of the dying. Pusic’s establishing shots are strong and imaginative, as she turns a space-eye view of earth into his eye, and he scales down to fit below the eye of a person who has taken their last breath. Her realisation is quite remarkable.

What Pusic can conceptually execute soars above the sad mundanity of the film’s situation: the viewer sees that Tuesday’s death is just one of the millions of voices the bird hears, and her problems with her mother Zora (Louis-Dreyfus) who is doing everything in her power to ignore Tuesday’s worsening situation, will make no difference when the time comes. And, alone in her room – her mother is out, and the nurse she can’t afford (Leah Harvey) is doing the washing – Tuesday recognises it is here. And it is welcome. What is different with Tuesday is how she pleads for extra time by telling the bird a joke, prompting him to speak — and to wash centuries of dirt off in her bedroom sink. Now glossily russet-hued, he allows Tuesday to wait for her mother to return from ‘work’.

But, when she gets back, Zora won’t do what she’s told either. And the macaw’s failure to move the dying on is causing untold anguish in the world.

Pusic’s creativity knows few bounds as her characters go on an odyssey of emotions – most of the film takes place in a run-down London house, its treasures sold off to pay for Tuesday’s care. Parts of Tuesday transpire on an empty beach which has an almost-mythical feel, as if it came from ancient times where birds were gods. There are few people to be seen, perhaps as a result of Covid conditions, but they all serve one purpose which is to show how death is an essential part of life. And there is no cheating it, as we all know, much though Zora tries.

There’s a sense early on that the premise here is being stretched to feature length. That turns out not to be the case but, even still, a 110-plus running time is pushing Tuesday too hard, and robs the film of some of its hard-won impact. The role of Zora is a nice fit for Louis-Dreyfus, who has the kind of energy to make some of this desperate – and not always nice – mother’s zanier moves seem logical. It’s heartening to see her support a first-timer too. Lola Pettigrew also takes the dying-child role and builds it into a sympathetic, suffering girl who wants to move on but fears her mother won’t be able to. 

The star of the show, though – the razzle-dazzle – is Death himself, as represented by Kene. A pot-smoking macaw who tokes, can dance to Ice Cube, and one-ups Tuesday when he acknowledges that  ‘my mother was a literal void of darkness’, he’s still scary enough to represent the end of life. 

Sometimes it’s not always clear why a director has made a particular film, but that’s never the case here. Tuesday isn’t safe: it walks a tightrope from beginning to end and Pusic keeps her entire crew on it, through an escalating series of ambitious scenarios. We’ll be hearing more from her.