You’ll believe that a white boy can do the moonwalk — or at least that Jacob Tremblay (Luca; The Room) can do the moonwalk better than anyone else in the room at a winking Back to The Future (1985)-themed school dance. Dance is at the heart of The Life of Chuck, a timely, if a tad trinkly, film about the moments that make life worth bearing. It connects personal and communal struggle together to build a film about swan songs and victory laps, and director Mike Flannigan (Doctor Sleep; Midnight Mass) is experiencing both as the film cements a new era for the Netflix filmmaker, taking his company of players and working relationship with Stephen King (The Shining; The Shawshank Redemption) to the big screen. It’s lovely and strange.
If you’re interested in a spoiler-free review of the film, make sure to head to EoM Contributor Justin Waldman’s initial Toronto International Film Festival spoiler-free review.
T-B: Tom Hiddleston as Charles Krantz and Karen Gillan as Felicia Gordon in Mike Flannigan’s THE LIFE OF CHUCK. Photo courtesy of NEON.
The Life of Chuck stars Tremblay and Tom Hiddleston (Loki; Crimson Peak) as the titular Chuck, Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave; Redbelt) as school teacher Marty Anderson, Karen Gillan (Guardians of the Galaxy; Doctor Who) as dedicated nurse Felicia Gordon, and Mark Hammil (Star Wars; Batman: Mask of the Phantasm) as Chuck’s grandfather. Already loaded with a gangbusters cast, the film is also littered with single-scene performers like David Dastmalchian (Late Night with the Devil; Oppenheimer), Carl Lumbly (Doctor Sleep; A Cure for Wellness), and Matthew Lillard (Twin Peaks: The Return; Scooby-Doo), who, if this was 1989, would be gearing up to campaign for the one-scene Oscar seat. All of these men are named repeatedly by cool narrator of the moment Nick Offerman (Parks and Rec; Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning), a choice in literary adaptation that will divide audiences almost as much as the film will.
“Our man Kantz is the Oz of the apocalypse.”
Correctly and coyly marketed as crowd-pleaser, you wouldn’t think that it would be if pitched the true premise. Hence the strange rhythm of the film’s trailers and Elements of Madness’s previous spoiler-free review. The film will bring tears to the eyes of many, sure. But it is also funny, entertaining and sometimes unnerving. The world is ending in a fashion that reflects the real moment and the history of Stephen King, as well. Climate disasters, civil unrest, doomsday cults in purple robes, and the simultaneous collapse of the internet and concrete highways. Those who remain have witnessed mass suicides and death on a scale that COVID doesn’t begin to touch, which is maybe why only Ejofor’s Marty Anderson cares when the local bank starts buying up every advertising slot in town to thank Chuck for a “Great 35 Years.” Billboards, radio ads, streetlight banners, no space is left untouched by gratefulness as the world breathes its last.
L-R: Chiwetel Ejiofor as Marty Anderson and Karen Gillan as Felicia Gordon in Mike Flannigan’s THE LIFE OF CHUCK. Photo courtesy of NEON.
This sounds bleak, but the film’s focus is not disaster, but how disaster brings us together. The disagreements of exes fall away when the bridges do, and in reminiscence without nostalgia, tender acts of pedestrian courage — dancing with a loved one, shouldering another’s burden, taking the time to understand a stranger — become defining memories. Disaster is a starting point, not the end point for The Life of Chuck, and audiences can look forward to a well-acted, well-blocked film with a totally-fine ARRI Alexa look to it with an incredible script and directing full of earnest pathos, marketed like it contains the cure for all our ills.
“I think it’s almost.”
One of the most interesting acquisitions by a studio in the past two years was Neon purchasing The Life of Chuck after its People’s Choice award win at TIFF 2024, then holding it until 2025 as its big follow-up to a year dominated by other Neon films Longlegs and Anora. Timing a film to the cultural moment is difficult, and too much hay will be tossed about the timing and need for a film like The Life of Chuck in a moment like this. Ted Lasso’s mass message of “happiness as resistance” did nothing to stop Mahmoud Khalil from being kidnapped for political speech or Jonathan Joss (Parks and Rec; King of the Hill) from being assassinated for being gay. The Life of Chuck will not stop the fascist attempt to sweep the nation under the rug. Art changes society by planting seeds that form our ideas, they don’t change hearts and voting habits overnight. And if they did, The Life of Chuck isn’t that good a movie.
L-R: Annalise Basso as Janice Halliday and Tom Hiddleston as Charles Krantz in Mike Flannigan’s THE LIFE OF CHUCK. Photo courtesy of NEON.
On a recent episode of Hasan Minhaj Doesn’t Know, Roy Wood Jr. (The Daily Show; Confess, Fletch) was asked “Do you think people over-index the power of political comedy?” And he partially replied “…because the world is shittier, so the laughs feel better.” Like a glass of water on a hot day, instead of a cold day. The same goes for drama. When our leaders don’t show up, when they court our enemies in open view and blame us for their rejections, it is not only understandable but necessary to search for leaders elsewhere, even in the message of a heart-warming film. So resist your ears hearing the marketing cry of “Masterpiece! Masterpiece!,” and go see a really good movie with clear expectations and a ready heart.
In select theaters June 6th, 2025.
In wide release June 13th, 2025.
For more information, head to the official NEON The Life of Chuck webpage.
Final Score: 4.5 out of 5.
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Categories: Films To Watch, In Theaters, Recommendation, Reviews
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