2017’s “Logan Lucky”, directed by Steven Soderbergh.
Starring Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Daniel Craig, Riley
Keough, Katie Holmes, Jack Quaid, Brian Gleeson, and Farrah McKenzie.
What is it about?
Taking place in present day rural West Virginia, “Logan
Lucky” stars Channing Tatum. Laid off from his mining job due to his employer
feeling he could be an insurance liability with his knee issues, Tatum chalks
it up to a family curse. Unemployed and alienated from his daughter (Farrah
McKenzie), whom his ex partner (Katie Holmes) is planning on moving away from,
Tatum needs to make some money to hire a lawyer and keep a roof over his head.
He recruits his hairdresser sister (Riley Keough), veteran one armed brother
(Adam Driver), and wiley convict (Daniel Craig) for a job robbing the local race
track. With help from Craig’s helpless brothers (Jack Quaid and Brian Gleeson),
can Tatum and company pull off the heist?
Why is it worth seeing?
It’s easy to peg “Logan Lucky” as just a Southern version of
“Ocean’s 11”, with it having the same director (Steven Soderbergh, blessedly
coming out of retirement), assembling a quirky ensemble cast together to
perform an intricate caper, scored by the quirky David Holmes music in the
background. But “Lucky”’s setting (down to earth West Virginia as opposed to glitzy
Las Vegas) and sometimes hilarious gags make it at times stronger than “Ocean’s
11”, and is a worthy addition to Soderbergh’s canon.
Soderbergh wastes little time diving into the how’s of
Tatum’s plan, and as we watch it unfold there is some incongruent thinking from
Tatum’s sometimes absurd confidence, which contrasts with his feelings on a
family curse that has made him so unsuccessful up to this point. And the
criminal population that the gang collaborates with can be a little too utopian
at times (a familiar issue with the Ocean’s series). That, and Daniel Craig’s
accent, wears thin.
But an appearance of Soderbergh playing with time (a lovely familiar
staple of his), combined with hilarious
gags, low key but solid performances (Adam Driver is proving quite versatile), and
an involving caper where there’s always more going on than meets the eye, makes
for a worthy experience. While I’m not exactly enamored with Nascar culture’s
zeitgeist- “Logan Lucky"’s left turns make me wish for more.
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