In my 30+ years of living, a trailer has never made me cry. I’ve been excited at the possibility of something, like the first time I saw the trailer for Wonder Woman. I’ve been frightened, like the first time I saw a trailer for The Conjuring. And I’ve been inspired, like the first time I saw the trailer for The Hobbit. The point being, I’ve never burst into tears mid-trailer. Then A24’s Tuesday walked into my life and destroyed me in a trailer featuring a talking parrot.
Tuesday tells the story of a mother and her teenage daughter whose lives are intertwined in a more profound way as the latter is sick. The mother Zora, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, takes care of her daughter. And it’s clear from the official trailer that her daughter Tuesday, played by Lola Petticrew, is in constant pain. Typically, something like this would not make me cry. We’ve had dramas about parents taking care of sick children. What makes this movie different is the personification of death in the form of a talking parrot and how it tilts their lives on its axis.
The daughter is sitting outside one day, wheezing in pain, when a big parrot lands near her. Before she can really react the parrots body starts writhing in pain because of all the stimulation around it and the daughter protects it. And it becomes apparent quickly that this isn’t a regular parrot. It can shift sizes. Oh yeah, and it can talk. Because it feels like this meeting wasn’t by accident. Death has come for the daughter. Mid freakout, the parent tells the mother that she needs to prepare to say goodbye to her daughter.
By this point, I feel like something has shifted in the official trailer for Tuesday. It’s taken a fantastical turn that is prevalent in A24 movies. But it’s still grounded in something very real. That’s why every single moment after this feels like a punch to the chest. And you better believe that I absolutely burst into tears when the daughter told her mother that she needed to be strong now and allow the daughter to help her be strong. By the time the mother started explaining that she didn’t know who she would be without her daughter, I was inconsolable.
And I’m not alone. If you look through the comments for the trailer over on YouTube, it ranges from “Who’s cutting onions here?” or “Leave it to A24 to release a trailer featuring an enlightened talking parrot that has me in tears at 9:30 in the morning.” Viewers are also sharing stories about loved ones that they have lost and how A24 continues to make the weirdest but most original content. The last bit is especially true. A24 continues to break barriers when it comes to original storytelling. And I cannot wait to cry all over Tuesday and experience a “heart-rending fairy tale about the echoes of loss and finding resilience in the unexpected.”
Watch the trailer below:
Tuesday doesn’t have an official release date yet and is marked as coming soon.
