Displaying items by tag: Lola Petticrew

TUESDAY

US, 2023, 110 minutes, Colour.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Lola Petticrew, Leah Harvey, voice of: Arinze Kene.

Directed by Daina Oniunas-Pusic.

Tuesday is a strange blend of fantasy and realism. The title is the name of a teenager, ill, confined to her room. She is played by Lola Petticrew. Her mother, Julia Louis Dreyfus, is an American, living in London, devoted to her daughter, but also feeling the burden of the constant care.

The opening sequences suggest cosmic aspects, fantasy, the universe, earth… And, this is further confirmed with the appearance of mysterious bird, a Macaw, who communicates with Tuesday. Much of the drama is the meeting between the bird and the girl, the bird transforming from ugliness to beauty, often increasing in size, conversation and challenge. And, the question as to whether all this is happening in Tuesday’s imagination.

Eventually, the mother is drawn into the scenario, the encounter with the bird, hostility, violence, and a sequence on the beach, the bird taking possession of the mother.

The audience has to have a willing suspension of disbelief to appreciate what is going on in reality or in the imagination, themes of illness, mortality, survival, mother-daughter relationships, and the final challenge to the mother and taking some control of her future.

1. The title, Tuesday and her illness, her death day?
2. The London setting, the home, the interiors, upstairs and downstairs, the streets, the parks, the shops? Atmosphere? Musical score?
3. The scenario, realistic, Tuesday and her illness, terminal, her age, care, at home, her relationship with her mother, tensions?
4. The fantasy, the opening, the universe, Earth, cosmic themes? Peoples’ eyes? Deaths? The macaw, eye, plumage, black, later washing, colourful plumage? Increases and decreases in size? Intelligence, voice, memory?
5. The symbol of death? Universal and cosmic? Issues of life after death? Beliefs? Tuesday and her beliefs? Her mother, tested, beliefs or not? The religious symbols, the Gospel symbols? The mythologies?
6. Tuesday, her personality, looked after by nurse Billie, Billie and her concern, in and out? Involved in the finale?
7. Tuesday and the bird, enlarging, diminishing, playful, serious, conversations, something of an alter ego for Tuesday? The themes of death?
8. The mother, selling the furniture, selling the rats, the bargaining, at home, in the park, sketching, phone calls, sleeping, the appearance of the deathly characters, chasing her, in the tree…?
9. The mother, the confrontation with the bird, aggressive, beating it, burning it, devouring it? Its increasing in her? Her birdlike behaviour? Changes in size?
10. The absence of the bird, the range and deaths? Tuesday, diminishing health, wanting to go upstairs, the sale of the furniture? Memories of the past? Tensions with her mother, her mother behaving in the birdlike way?
11. At the beach, her mother and the bird, setting the bird free?
12. Mother and daughter, quiet, at home, Tuesday dying?
13. Her mother’s despair, wanting to die, sitting, the bird appearing, tempting her, taunting her, not letting her die, leaving her free to live?

A BUMP ALONG THE WAY

UK, 2019, 95 minutes, Colour.

Bronagh Gallagher, Lola Petticrew, Mary Moulds, Dan Gordon, Andy Doherty.

Directed by Shelley Love.

A cheerful film from Northern Ireland.

This is a story of Pamela, played exuberantly by Bronagh Gallagher, aged 44, a broken marriage, living with her daughter, Allegra, working at a bakery. After some drinking, she has a passionate evening with a younger man in the back of a car. She is not worried about unprotected sex because it been told after the birth of Allegra that she cannot have any more children.

But, she could, and does, conceive.

A blend of comedy and seriousness in her facing the reality of motherhood in her 40s, a reliance on her close friend, confidante, but also problems with her daughter, midteens, critical of her mother at times, initially upset about the pregnancy, especially as news gets around the school, but eventually coming to terms, and eager for the baby.

There is a scene with the ex-husband, unsympathetic. There is a confrontation with the father and his hostile attitude.

In the Allegra part of the story, there is school, classes, her being bullied, a sympathetic teacher, her infatuation with a boy, neglecting a close friend, some drinking, sickness, and great embarrassment.

However, this is a happy film, some reconciliation is, the baby, and reconciliations all round.

1. The title, tone, pregnancy, comic, serious?
2. The Northern Ireland setting, characters, accents? The town, homes, school,, hospital, surgeries? Musical score?
3. Pamela’s story, aged 44, the initial encounter with Barry, her drinking, sex, unprotected, not fearing pregnancy, broken marriage, relationship with the ex-husband and his visits, Allegra as her daughter, age, managing by herself, in the shop, the customers, Richard with Michael and his support? At home, tensions with Allegra? Health, discovery she was pregnant, reaction, her reliance on Sinead as her friend and confidante? The doctor, the pregnancy, previous advice? Attitude, keeping the baby, others suggesting abortion, a mother at 44?
4. Her going to see Barry, his negative reaction, his mother, ousting her? Her later decision to return and confront him?
5. Allegra, her name, her friends, bullied at school, the class and her response to the teacher, his concern? Her friend, their being together, her infatuation with the boy, his ignoring her, then his talking to her, collecting her friend, the separation? Her mixing with the other girls? Her birthday, our with boys and friends, the drinking, infatuation, the boy’s girlfriend and her reaction? Her lying to another? The story about her mother’s pregnancy and her reaction? At home, hostile?
6. Allegra and her gradual mellowing, love for her mother, concerned about the baby?
7. Pamela going to the scan, the decision to know, about the name of the boy? The photos of the scan – and her having Allegra’s?
8. The visit her ex-husband, the tension, clash?
9. The birth, the joy?
10. The happy reconciliation, friendships, happy ending?