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Logan Lucky has all the right moves, says Rashid Irani
Expect humour, action and plenty of plot twists in this tale of two down-on-their-luck brothers desperate to reverse a curse on the family.
Four years after announcing his retirement from feature filmmaking so he could concentrate on television, Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh (Traffic) re-enters the big-screen fray with this clever caper comedy.
And he is in full bloom, keeping the audience on the edge of their seats from the first frame to the last. (Just in case you’re wondering, Logan Lucky has nothing to do with Wolverine or the X-Men).
Packed with deadpan humour, speedway action and a myriad twists, the plot centres on two down-on-their-luck siblings (Channing Tatum – Adam Driver) desperate to reverse a curse on the family.
One brother is divorced and unemployed; the other lost an arm in the Iraq War. They plan to turn things around with an elaborate heist during a motorcar racing event, and they’ve they enlisted the help of their hairdresser sister (Riley Keough), an incarcerated convict (Daniel Craig) and his morally indignant brothers (Jack Quaid-Brian Gleeson).
Also thrown into the mix are an oddball prison warden (Dwight Yoakam), a commercial sponsor (Seth MacFarlane) and an FBI agent (Hilary Swank).
A brief encounter between the Robin Hood-ish ring leader and a genial medic (Katherine Waterston) is one of many comic highlights.
Daniel Craig, with his bleached-blonde crew-cut, is a hoot. The ‘Smallville USA’ setting is layered with vibrant Day-Glo colours and a jaunty soundtrack featuring John Denver, Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn.
As always, Soderbergh has also served as cinematographer and editor, under the familiar pseudonyms Peter Andrews and Mary Ann Bernard.
The script, credited to a Rebecca Blunt (who some sources claim is Soderbergh himself), evokes the madcap hijinks of the director’s Ocean’s trilogy, with the noticeable difference that the suave high-rollers have been replaced by blue-collar strugglers.
The far-fetched but equitable resolution will likely warm the cockles of genre geeks’ hearts.
