Review of Logan Lucky (2017) by Dottheeyes — 18 Aug 2017

A bit of a disappointment, unfortunately. A Steven Soderbergh-directed, Ocean's-style caper comedy transplanted to a blue-collar milieu in West Virginia and North Carolina, it is a film of fitful amusement and invention, but it is never as consistently fun as it clearly aims to be. The film does have one enormous asset, though: a delightful performance by a cast-against-type Daniel Craig. He plays a taciturn, tattooed, Southern-accented pyromaniac and thief named Joe Bang. Craig venturing beyond the suave, tough James Bond archetype is not exactly a revelation (consider, for example, his turn as murderer and In Cold Blood subject Perry Edward Smith in Infamous), but it is clear he relishes this absurd antihero, and his enjoyment becomes ours. The rest of the cast, including Adam Driver and Channing Tatum as unexpectedly convincing brothers, is mostly fine, though none of their roles are nearly as compelling as Craig's. Riley Keough, for instance, is sexy and spry as a Daisy Duke-style hairdresser sidekick, but the role never blossoms beyond the functional and ornamental. There are two members of the ensemble I would gladly cut, however: Seth MacFarlane, just bizarrely and uncomfortably miscast as a narcissistic British racing sponsor, and Hilary Swank, whose late-in-the-game appearance signals when the film seriously starts to feel overlong and out of fuel.

Behind the camera, Soderbergh acquits himself decently on a scene-by-scene basis, shooting the action (much of it set in an industrial labyrinth beneath a speedway) with characteristic clarity and efficiency. On a broader level, though, the film slips away from him to a degree. His attempts to infuse the story with heart and soul—the West Virginia locals' economic anxiety, one principal character's doting relationship with his daughter—are rather limp, and the film becomes a noticeably long sit during its third act. Said third act includes one of those montages in which the events of the heist play out again from another perspective, showing us who was misdirecting whom and what transpired in place B while we were focused on place A. Sadly, this registers more as convoluted and labored than a-ha! surprising or playful.