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Lucky Logan: A Fun-Filled Hillbilly Heist
By Sandra Olmsted
Director Steven Sodoerbergh’s return-from-retirement film, Lucky Logan, comes from first-time screenwriter Rebecca Blunt’s breezy script, which seems a more female take on the classic heist film. According to local legend, the Logan family has long been cursed with failure, and not only do the three Logan siblings want to disprove the curse, they want to take revenge on, and money from, the more successful.
When divorced father and construction worker Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum) is fired for having a college-football limp which he didn’t report on his application, it is a rebel call to fight against all that he imagines is oppressing him by all means necessary.
Because his now former employer has the contract to repair sinkholes at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, NC, Jimmy knows that the racetrack moves money through pneumatic tubes to the vault and that the vault’s alarm system has been partially disabled because of the construction.
For Jimmy, it seems a reasonable leap that robbing the racetrack during the big Memorial Day NASCAR race will be easy. First, Jimmy enlists the help of his siblings, the seemingly successful Mellie (Riley Keough), a hair dresser, and Clyde (Adam Driver), a sad-sack veteran who lost his arm in Iraq and has a troublesome artificial one.
In a low-rent Oceans 11 move, Jimmy’s elaborate plan involves Joe Bang (Daniel Craig), who happens to still be in jail, and Joe insists Jimmy recruit his nitwit siblings,
Fish (Jack Quaid) and Sam (Brian Gleeson). What the Logans don’t do is reveal their plan to the audience, which means that the plan has a chance of succeeding. It also means this heist film has an added level of suspense because the heist feels like a seat-of-the-pants lark by masterminds hilariously without brains and lots of good-old-boy logic.
While some political commentary might be an element to consider because of the characters and setting, a deeper analysis of Lucky Logan would involve spoilers about the comedy. Instead, look at the masterful performances by Tatum, Keough, Driver, Craig, Quaid, Gleeson, and the rest of the cast.
Seth MacFarlane plays an obnoxious British racing magnate; Katherine Waterston has a cameo as a health-care professional with a broken-down charity clinic on wheels, and Dwight Yoakam embodies a prison warden who’s too concerned with image.
Katie Holmes takes the cliche to a new level as Jimmy’s hateful ex-wife; Farrah Mackenzie plays Jimmy’s precocious, Rihanna-fixated daughter, and Hilary Swank has a cameo as frustrated FBI agent who can’t quite nail Jimmy for the robbery. The fantastic cast and creative casting make the film a delight.
Lucky Logan, a Bleecker Street Media release, is rated PG-13 for language and some crude comments and runs a jaunty 119 minutes. A purely fun film, Lucky Logan, is in theaters now.
