Mike Flanagan has always undertaken cinematic confrontations with mortality, but none have ever been quite as magnificent and moving as “The Life of Chuck.”
The Tom Hiddleston-starring feature is less of a horror film than it is an existential grappling with the end — while also being a jubilant celebration of the moments that make life worth living along the way. It’s Flanagan’s vibrant equivalent of Charlie Kaufman’s “Synecdoche, New York” that finds hope and meaning in his own way just as it is one of the best modern Stephen King adaptations one could hope for.
Building off King’s novella, the feature bursts outward like the creation of a vast galaxy while holding you close as the stars begin to fade away.