From a show-stopping Tom Hiddleston dance sequence to heart-wrenching reflections on our own mortality, we break down the first responses to Mike Flanagan’s The Life of Chuck, recipient of this year’s TIFF People’s Choice Award.
Mike Flanagan’s name is synonymous with those ghastly terrors that keep you up all hours of the night. From his chilling Netflix series like The Haunting of Hill House and Midnight Mass to films including The Shining sequel Doctor Sleep and home-invasion thriller Hush, this is a man who has developed a knack for sending chills down your spine. So it may come as a surprise that the filmmaker’s latest feature, The Life of Chuck, is being described by Letterboxd after its rapturous TIFF premiere as having “touched me deep within my soul, gave me a warm hug, and told me everything was going to be okay.”
“A heartfelt tale of humanity and mortality,” writes Maxine, which “brought much needed hope and joy.” From Flanagan? Hard to believe! And yet Life of Chuck has just scooped up the TIFF People’s Choice Award, typically bestowed upon crowd-pleasers that hit heavy on the emotions. Previous winners include American Fiction, La La Land, Silver Linings Playbook and Slumdog Millionaire, which you might pick up a common trend from: the festival’s biggest prize is a much-touted bellwether for an eventual Best Picture nomination at the Oscars, with the last twelve People’s Choice winners receiving nods from the Academy (three of them were winners). The runner-ups for TIFF’s award this year were Jacques Audiard’s highly acclaimed Emilia Pérez and Letterboxd member Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or winning Anora, putting Life of Chuck in quite esteemed company.
Whether it’s the return to the Overlook Hotel or the riveting, gut-churning Carla Gugino thriller Gerald’s Game, Flanagan has shown an affinity for the work of Stephen King, who provided the source material for The Life of Chuck with his novella of the same name in his 2020 collection If It Bleeds. The surrealist, madcap story begins with Chuck (Tom Hiddleston) recently retired at the age of 39, and tells its tale in reverse order as we trace how he became the man he is now. Sara describes the film as “a life-affirming work that finds light and warmth in melancholy and jubilantly captures the multitudes of being human,” touching on the fact that we’re more in the Stand by Me and Shawshank Redemption camp of King’s oeuvre here. A bevy of delightful co-stars along for the ride, including Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, Matthew Lillard, Jacob Tremblay, Heather Langenkamp and a buzzy performance from Mark Hammill.
If you need some comparison points for a sense of what The Life of Chuck is going for, Flanagan has you covered. A diligent Letterboxd member, the director dropped a list long before the film’s premiere of The Life of Chuck companions which features those two more humanistic King works (plus Hearts in Atlantis!) alongside titles like Ikiru, It’s a Wonderful Life and All That Jazz. It’s no surprise that Flanagan has built himself up to a King adaptation in this vein, as his own list of Favorite King Adaptations is topped by… you guessed it, The Shawshank Redemption and Stand by Me.
That companion list also includes Singin’ in the Rain and West Side Story, hinting at a jubilant spirit and indeed a musical step in its shoes. Many Letterboxd reviews echo Brother Bro’s sentiment that “one dance sequence in particular is worth the price of ission alone — unforgettable.” Hiddlestans, your time has come. Brian touches on a couple different demographics, writing that “as a boy raised on movie musicals who has read every Stephen King book, The Life of Chuck is very much a me movie.” If you think it’s all fun and games though, look out. Kellen praises, and possibly warns, “that dancing scene did damage to my tear ducts, gave me flashbacks to a glorious Aftersun scene.”
The Life of Chuck clearly came from the heart for Flanagan, who took to his Letterboxd after the premiere to write: “One of the most profound nights of my career. Thank you to everyone who came out for this once-in-a-lifetime screening. Goodnight, and joy be to you all.” Currently sitting at a 3.7 average on Letterboxd, this is just the beginning for Flanagan’s tearjerker. The Life of Chuck was added to over 5,000 watchlists in the 48 hours after the euphoric responses came in from its world premiere, and added another 3,000 upon winning the People’s Choice Award. It is also one of the rare films to win TIFF’s biggest prize without yet having a distributor in place. Surely the bidding war has taken off now.
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