Review of Logan Lucky (2017) by Matt C — 18 Aug 2017

When Steven Soderbergh announced his retirement from directing, I think we all knew that that was a load of hot air. Maybe it's just that I wanted that to be the case, but either way, I'm glad that it was.

It hasn't been too long since his last movie with three and a half years with Side Effects, and Logan Lucky is more of the type of fun that you would want and expect from his efforts and a typically great cast to work with.

With a respect for the characters onscreen and an appreciation for the genre that Soderbergh helped solidify into the 21st century, the fun to be had here cannot be denied, with swift direction that helps gloss over what becomes a messy script come act three.

Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum) is a construction worker living in West Virginia but working at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina, recently laid off due to an injury. With a daughter and an ex-wife (Katie Holmes), he recruits his brother Clyde (Adam Driver) and sister Mellie (Riley Keough), as well as convicted felon Joe Bang (Daniel Craig) and his brothers Sam (Brian Gleeson) and Fish (Jack Quaid) to conduct a ridiculously elaborate heist at Jimmy's former place of work during the Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR race.

Soderbergh himself described the movie as an "anti-glam version of an Oceans movie", and that's pretty much what it is. For a movie that's pretty much all formula minus a few exceptions, Logan Lucky is really successful in the grand scheme of things, not least because of the energy of the direction.

It's just so refreshing to see a filmmaker care about camera placement and movement, and little tricks related to these help keep up the pacing of the film when the script may not have felt so quick in the hands of another director.

The performances are enjoyable all around not so much because of the comedic timing and presence of each actor, but because of the realism that they inject into the grandiose situations they find themselves in.

(This actually doesn't apply for one actor, but I'll get to him later.) The script is credited to Rebecca Blunt in her feature debut, but apparently she doesn't actually exist and many people the film was written by Soderbergh or by his wife, Jules Asner.

Nevertheless, this screenwriter forges likable protagonists out of what could have easily been characters relegated to stereotypes in order for those on both sides of the camera to mock. They each have their quirks and form a collective that's fun to behold the scheming of, and the filmmakers' admiration of these people is apparent (and they even make a jab at society's conditioning to assume them to be less than bright).

Where Logan Lucky starts to wobble a bit is in its third act, and its issues aren't quite notable in that they're problems common in many other scripts. When loose ends begin to tie themselves up, the switching between locations and characters can feel jarring, and their ultimate resolutions are rather contrived.

A minor character played by Katherine Waterston is largely extraneous but is featured in two scenes, and the movie seems to end three or four times. The most blatant issue with the film was by way of a pretentious supporting character played by Seth MacFarlane, who felt like something out of an entirely different movie and far too cartoonish.

If the intention was to invert how stereotypes are attributed to different kinds of people in movies (i.e. the rich and successful versus the common and blue collar), then the irony wasn't executed well.

Even if Logan Lucky isn't as tightly wound as it could have been, it makes for an enjoyable and energetic viewing that plays well in a crowded theater during a summer afternoon. The actors are all having fun here and I'd love to see Daniel Craig play more out-of-the-box characters (and his accent was surprisingly solid as well), and it's clear that Soderbergh isn't losing any sight of his craft.

It's pretty impressive to make a movie as formulaic as this so fun for most of its runtime. 7.7/10, good, B, above average, etc.