Lucky (2017 American film)

Lucky
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	John Carroll Lynch
Screenplay by	Logan Sparks Drago Sumonja
Produced by	Ira Steven Behr Danielle Renfrew Behrens Greg Gilreath Adam Hendricks Richard Kahan John H. Lang Logan Sparks Drago Sumonja
Starring	Harry Dean Stanton David Lynch Ron Livingston Ed Begley Jr. Tom Skerritt
Cinematography	Tim Suhrstedt
Music by	Elvis Kuehn
Production companies	Superlative Films Divide / Conquer Lagralane Group
Distributed by	Magnolia Pictures
Release date	March 11, 2017 (2017-03-11) (SXSW)[1]
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$955,925[2]

Lucky is a 2017 American drama film, starring Harry Dean Stanton and directed by John Carroll Lynch from a screenplay by Logan Sparks and Drago Sumonja. It was one of Stanton's final onscreen roles before his death at age 91 on September 15, 2017. The film tells the story of 90-year-old Lucky as he comes to terms with his own mortality and searches for enlightenment. It received positive reviews from critics.

Plot[]

Lucky lives alone in an isolated house in the small desert town of Piru, California. He drinks a glass of cold milk after his morning yoga and cigarette before getting dressed and heading out on his daily routine.

He heads to a diner for coffee where he is on friendly terms with the owner, Joe. He works on his crossword puzzle from his daily newspaper. Lucky then walks to a convenience store where he buys another pack of cigarettes and a carton of milk. The owner, Bibi, tells Lucky that her son Juan is having his tenth birthday in one week. That evening, Lucky stops at a bar called Elaine's and has a few Bloody Marias with the locals. One of the regulars, Howard, is depressed that his pet tortoise named Roosevelt has escaped.

The next morning, Lucky becomes entranced by the blinking numbers on his coffeepot. He gets light-headed and falls over, smashing his ceramic mug. At a clinic, Dr. Christian Kneedler gives Lucky a clean bill of health, and mentions that Lucky has out-smoked and outlived the majority of people in his age group. At the diner, Lucky mentions how he fell and everyone becomes concerned for his safety. Not wanting to feel like a burden, Lucky leaves. That night, Lucky calls a friend while he watches TV. He tells his friend that when he was a boy in Kentucky, he shot a mockingbird with his BB gun. He describes how devastating the silence was, and that it was the saddest thing he had ever seen. Lucky thanks his friend for listening and hangs up.

Back at the bar, Lucky listens to a story from one of the bar regulars, Paulie, about how he met and married his first wife. Lucky reflects on how he never married or had any lasting relationships. Lucky sees Howard talking with a lawyer named Bobby Lawrence about making a will for himself and wanting to leave all of his possessions to his pet tortoise. Lucky causes a scene over Howard's life choices, declaring that everyone in this world is alone and is meant to be alone. Another day or two later, Joe's employee Loretta visits Lucky to check on him. While smoking marijuana, Lucky shows Loretta old photos of his time in the US Navy and they watch old VHS tapes of Liberace performing in concert. While having coffee at the diner, Lucky runs into Bobby Lawrence, where he confides in him about his accident days earlier. Bobby tells Lucky about a time when he nearly got into a car accident and tells Lucky to always be prepared for the unexpected. Lucky visits a pet store to look for a small animal to adopt as a companion, but he instead decides on a box of live crickets.

Lucky meets a World War II Marine veteran named Fred. Lucky tells Fred about his time in the US Navy during the war in the Pacific, and shares that his nickname arose from having the relatively safe job of cook on an LST. Fred tells Lucky a story about how after the Marines secured a beach, the locals began to commit suicide by jumping off cliffs. In the mayhem of battle, he encountered a young girl, smiling amidst all the carnage. Fred wondered how she could smile in the midst of all that misery and death. He later learned that the girl was a Buddhist and was smiling at the prospect of being killed. The story leaves Lucky speechless. Upon returning home, Lucky sets the clock on his coffee machine to the correct time to stop the blinking. He attends Bibi's son Juan's birthday party and comes to enjoy having company. He spontaneously sings "Volver Volver" in Spanish for the party goers.

That evening, Lucky goes back to the bar for more Bloody Marias. Howard has not found his tortoise yet, and concludes that all things must eventually come to an end. Lucky then attempts to light a cigarette at the bar despite being ordered not to do so by the owner, Elaine. He delivers a speech to the bar patrons that everything goes away eventually and that we are left with nothing. Elaine asks what is one supposed to do with nothing. Lucky simply replies "you smile". The remark transforms the mood of the bar; Lucky lights up his cigarette and steps outside.

The next morning, Lucky wakes up and goes through his usual routine of yoga and drinking a glass of cold milk. He goes for a walk through town, as he always does, and passes by the outdoor botanic garden and bar where he was previously banned for public smoking. In the desert, Lucky lights up a cigarette, and looks up at a tall and imposing cactus in bloom. He breaks the fourth wall and smiles as he begins his walk back into town. As Lucky heads down the desert path alone, a tortoise trudges across the path from one end to the other before disappearing into the desert bushes.

Cast[]

• Harry Dean Stanton as Lucky
• David Lynch as Howard
• Ron Livingston as Bobby Lawrence
• Ed Begley Jr. as Dr. Christian Kneedler
• Tom Skerritt as Fred
• Barry Shabaka Henley as Joe
• James Darren as Paulie
• Beth Grant as Elaine
• Yvonne Huff as Loretta
• Hugo Armstrong as Vincent
• Bertila Damas as Bibi
• Ana Mercedes as Victoria, Bibi's mother
• Amy Claire as Frances, pet shop worker

Production[]

On July 7, 2016, it was revealed that Lucky had begun filming in Los Angeles.^[3]

On April 7, 2017, it was announced that Magnolia Pictures acquired U.S. and international rights to distribute the film.^[4]

Reception[]

On Rotten Tomatoes, Lucky has a rating of 97%, based on 139 reviews, with an average score of 7.82/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Lucky is a bittersweet meditation on mortality, punctuating the career of beloved character actor Harry Dean Stanton."^[5] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 80 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[6]

Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com gave the film four out of four stars, writing that the film is:

The humblest deep movie of recent years, a work in the same vein as American marginalia like 'Stranger Than Paradise' and 'Trees Lounge,' but with its own rhythm and color, its own emotional temperature, its own reasons for revealing and concealing things.^[7]

Seitz later named Lucky as the best film of 2017, stating that "I didn't expect much more than indie-film quirk when I read the description of this film, but emotionally it destroyed me."^[8]

Accolades[]

Notes[]

References[]

External links[]

• Official website
• Lucky at IMDb
• Lucky at AllMovie
• Lucky at Metacritic
• Lucky at Rotten Tomatoes
• Lucky at Box Office Mojo