Tuesday

Front Row at the Movies by Shirrel Rhoades

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Some people compare “Tuesday” with “Terms of Endearment,” at least in the emotions that bubble forth from watching it. Here, we meet Zora (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) as a mother who is desperately trying to avoid the inevitable for her terminally ill daughter Tuesday (Lola Pettigrew).

At first glance, you see this as a theme that has been done before. But it’s not what you expect. First-time director Daina O. Pusic has managed “to shake up the formula and with the help of some magical realism, has told this story in a fresh, unique and interesting way.”

In this surreal turn of events, we get Death (Arinzé Kene) “in the form of an anthropomorphic macaw bird that swoops in when your time is up, wrapping you under his wings and taking your soul away.”

However, Tuesday’s mother is not ready to say goodbye. So, she attempts to bargain with Death. Having little results, she eventually takes matters into her own hands with “shocking and humorous, but equally heartfelt” results.

“Tuesday” explores the complexities of accepting death. The film’s absurdities (the macaw, the anthropomorphizing of Death) are palatable thanks to the sincere performances of Julia Louis-Dreyfus (TV’s “Seinfeld” and “Veep”) and Lola Petticrew (“She Said,” “Dating Amber”).

Arinzé Kene is convincing as Death with the “deep, dulcet tones” of his delivery, despite the absurdity of his appearing as an ominous size-shifting talking bird.

“Tuesday” is currently showing at Tropic Cinema.

Filmmaker Daina Oniunas Pusic is best-known for such award-winning shorts as “Rhonna and Donna” and “The Beast.”

The 11-time Emmy-winner Julia Louis-Dreyfus says, “I was looking for something, I’m not going to use the word ‘dark,’ but dramatic, and it came at the right time, and this exact role, I felt like I had a way into it.”

She adds, “I was immediately drawn into it because of the themes of loss and grief and denial and the theme of the relationship, the mother, the parent-child relationship, and how that’s explored. All of that was infinitely interesting to me … this was a leap for me.”

Like a lot of A24 films (this is a co-production with BFI and BBC Film), “Tuesday” has a slow start, but staying on for the journey is a wake worth attending.

Email Shirrel: srhoades@aol.com