Logan Lucky Review

Logan Lucky is a 2017 heist comedy written (under a pseudonym) and directed by Steven Soderbergh. The film has been a hot topic of conversation among film circles, many dubbing it the most underrated film of the year.



Story

After Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum) gets fired from his job as a coal miner he teams up with his brother Clyde (Adam Driver) and convict Joe Bang (Daniel Craig) to rob a NASCAR race in North Carolina.



That right there is a pretty good setup for a heist movie; interesting setup, unique location, a cast of fun sounding characters and a setup for potentially interesting commentary considering America's (let's face it) not entirely positive view of the rural South.



Unfortunately, that doesn't keep the first half of the movie from being horribly paced. The film does the barest minimum of setting itself up, blowing through plot points so quickly in the first 10 mins that we don't really have time to either absorb them or feel the impact they should be having. In the first five minutes Jimmy is fired from his job and the movie just moves on. In the next five minutes after that we get some throwaway line about his ex-wife moving across the state line with their daughter which somehow means it'd be more difficult to see her and then ten minutes after that we jump right into planning for the heist. No joke, that's how quickly all the buildup for the film goes by. There's barely any time spent building up character personalities or motivations and it results in the rest of the film feeling really empty. I remember they were in the middle of the heist and I was thinking to myself, "Why am I even supposed to care?" Also, the actual heist of the movie isn't the climax like you'd think it would be. Instead, it takes up the majority of the second act for some confusing reason and since we know that we're only in the second act, there's no reason for the audience to get invested in whether or not they'll get caught.



The other reason that there's no reason to get invested is that the characters are all pretty boring. Don't get me wrong, they're conceptually all interesting and had some real potential, but there's a big difference between potential and reality. Jimmy as the down on his luck everyman could've been a good relatable protagonist, but instead he just comes across as generic. Clyde as a war veteran who lost his arm in Afghanistan could've been the emotional core of the movie, but the film does nothing with his backstory. Joe bang is the only one who's kind of fun as this wise-cracking convict, but they don't ever have him go full out loony.



Despite this movie being a comedy I can't really think of a lot that made me laugh. It's not really that witty, I'm pretty sure I missed where half the jokes were supposed to be and I can't decide if it's me or the movie who's to blame for it. There are a few chuckles here and there, but I ultimately walked away feeling robbed of the laugh high I came for.



I would talk about the themes of the film, but the problem is there doesn't seem to be any until the last third of the film. I understand that not every movie has to be about something, but even the most light hearted action movies can fit some commentary in there. I mean, this is the American South, a part of the country that the rest of the US sees as a giant right-wing caricature and constantly uses as the butt of a bunch of cheap jokes. This should be prime opportunity to bring Southern culture to life and maybe make some commentary about how unfairly they've been viewed by the rest of the country for the last half century at least. That last part is hinted at subtly in the last third of the movie when the FBI come in to solve the heist (oh yeah, the last third of this movie decides to become an investigation movie out of nowhere) and they're initially skeptical about the ability of two Southern boys to pull of a heist this complicated, but it's mostly just lip service and doesn't go anywhere interesting.



Technical

Wherever there can be good said about the movie lies in the technical side of things. Soderbergh continues to prove that he is, if nothing else, one of the premiere technicians in modern Hollywood.



The lighting and colors really bring the South to life visually, with popping greens and blues and warm browns and oranges. It really does give you the sense of being in the rural South.



The cinematography is pretty good, with well composed shots and camera movement that's engaging while avoiding being distracting. It does a lot of good, subtle visual storytelling with simple things like camera placement/angle and closeups.



The costume design is also pretty good, managing to balance what people in the South would generally wear like country band shirts, baseball caps and denim without it seeming stereotypical, which is really tricky to pull off.



The soundtrack walks the same line as the costume design, choosing quintessentially country tunes without steeping into it sounding humorous.



The main thing that sticks out in my mind on the technical side is the acting. Everybody in the cast manages to put on a really convincing Southern accent that sound cartoony, but still convincing. Channing Tatum manages to breathe some life into Jimmy through sheer screen presence and while Adam Driver doesn't really get a lot of facial expression variety he works with what he has admirably enough. However, the main performance to see the movie for is Daniel Craig, who has completely stripped himself of his usual stoic persona and gives probably the best performance of his career so far; he's energized, his accent is on point and he shows more facial expression than in all four of his James Bond films combined.



Summary: Logan Lucky is yet another movie that has shown me how much disappointment hype can bring. After the entire cinefile community praising this thing to high heaven I was expecting some kind of action/comedy hybrid masterwork. Instead, what I got was a long, not terribly interesting movie that I feel like should've been a lot better than it was. A lack of thematic depth and reason to care make this one not exactly a terrible film, but definitely a real heartbreaker.