After TUESDAY, I “promise, “promise” you that director Daina Oniunas-Pusic will make a fantastic film at some point in her career. Sadly, her feature-film directorial debut is hit-or-miss. But what does hit is how uniquely she can delve deep into accepting death through comedy, horror, and a giant bird.
Let me be clear, TUESDAY is f*cking bananas. There were moments when I couldn’t believe what was happening on the screen, and for the most part, it was working. Outside of Oniunas-Pusic’s ambitious direction, the reason why this outrageous take on death works is actors Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Lola Petticrew. They are game to go to some incredibly dark places, and it’s all very watchable.
This is my attempt to pitch this movie in some semblance of a way audiences might get. Think of the grief of ORIGIN without the history lesson, the spirituality of Wim Wenders’ WINGS OF DESIRE, but instead of angels, death, and the horror/sci-fi of DONNIE DARKO, swapping the rabbit for a bird.
The greatest compliment is that despite the absurdity of TUESDAY, it moved me to tears. It’s an odd marriage of film elements that shouldn’t go together, yet strangely do. Even more importantly, they hit the audience right in the feels and expose the fact we are all afraid of death, and one day, we are going to die. Here’s hoping that “eating my grief” might delay the process a bit longer.
It’s available to rent on all VOD platforms.
