Directed by: Steven Soderbergh
Starring: Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Daniel Craig, Riley Keough
Rated PG-13, 119 minutes
“Logan Lucky” might be the strangest film I’ve seen all year, but not because of the story it tells or how it’s put together. In fact, it’s one of the most by-the-books movies I’ve seen in a long time. A laid-off construction worker enlists his siblings and an imprisoned convict to help him rob a NASCAR racetrack; I almost don’t need to explain the story any further, since whatever you imagine happens from there is probably correct. So no, this movie isn’t strange because of anything in it, but instead because of everything surrounding it, from the return of “retired” director Steven Soderbergh, to the unreasonably big cast of familiar faces, to the mystery surrounding the film’s credited screenwriter, Rebecca Blunt, who doesn’t actually seem to exist.
As for the movie itself? It feels like the platonic ideal of a working-class Americana heist flick, or, perhaps more accurately, a template other directors might use as a jumping-off point in order to create a unique moviegoing experience elsewhere. Think of “Hell or High Water,” but without the nuance; “Talladega Nights,” but without the jokes; “Baby Driver” or “Going in Style,” but without the novelty. The most unique thing “Logan Lucky” has going for it is that one of its main characters is missing an arm.
That doesn’t mean this is an unenjoyable movie. Soderbergh has always been especially skilled when it comes to pacing his films and crafting dynamic visuals to carry us along, and that’s as true now as it was when he made “Ocean’s Eleven.” He’s also the rare director that matches his technical craft with an instinct for emotional storytelling, and sure enough, “Logan Lucky” features a host of striking and likable performances.
Where the movie loses me, however, is in its rampant sloppiness. Plot holes aside, this is a heist movie that doesn’t even give a clear reason for the heist. And befitting a movie with almost no sense of purpose, the obstacles that impede the central mission are never more than perfunctory, from a couple of unintimidating security guards to an ineffectual FBI investigator to a bumbling prison warden. Without even so much as self-doubt getting in the way of the characters, this has to be the least tense crime movie I’ve ever seen.
Granted, the movie’s loose structure and tonal ambivalence don’t seem to have hindered the cast too much. In particular, Adam Driver (“Star Wars: The Force Awakens”) steals his scenes as the one-armed Clyde, whose blend of toughness and sensitivity, of resourcefulness and dependence, is consistently endearing. Daniel Craig also comes to life in a new way here, shedding his James Bond gravitas for an aggressive rodeo clown persona and proving once again that the greatest gift you can give an actor is to miscast him. Meanwhile, Channing Tatum (“Magic Mike”) limps inconsistently through the lead role of Jimmy Logan, but child actor Farrah Mackenzie, playing Jimmy’s daughter, is a bright spot, outperforming all the adults around her.
Unfortunately, a few compelling performances do not a worthwhile movie make. “Logan Lucky” is fast-paced and occasionally funny, but it’s fatally useless, requiring no audience involvement or investment. Ultimately, there’s nothing to take away. Jimmy never feels pressure to change, and so we feel no pressure to remember any of the details. If “Logan Lucky” actually says anything, it’s that things happen, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse; for more in-depth insights on the topic, consult your nearest fortune cookie.
To be fair, Soderbergh has said that he has no interest in making intellectual films, that he just wants to make movies that regular people can enjoy. That’s a respectable goal, and in the past he’s followed through, most remarkably with “Magic Mike,” a movie that embraced its decidedly un-intellectual premise. The difference here is that Soderbergh, by way of the mysterious Rebecca Blunt, assumes that “regular” people have no qualities of their own and instead derive their self-perception from their regional accents and the sports they watch and the Steven Soderbergh movies they see. He expects us to mistake this lazy piece of filmmaking for escapism, but he seems to have forgotten that escapism only works if you give people somewhere interesting to go.
Originally published in The Harvard Press on 8/25/17.