The Life of Chuck

Like Frank Darabont before him, Mike Flanagan has often found inspiration in the work of Stephen King, including Doctor Sleep (2019), sequel to The Shining. The Life Of Chuck, People’s Choice Award winner at TIFF 2024, comes from the more humanist end of King’s work, of a piece with Darabont’s The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and Rob Reiner’s Stand By Me (1986). It begins with a depiction of a planet coming apart at the seams as all manners of inexplicable natural disasters become commonplace. Teacher Marty (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is distracted from the imminent end of everything by the constant appearance of baffling billboards and advertisements thanking Charles Krantz (Tom Hiddleston) for 39 great years. How this Twilight Zone-esque mystery is resolved, in deeply moving fashion, involves extended dance sequences, Walt Whitman, a grizzled Mark Hamill, and is best discovered for oneself.