Logan Lucky (2017)

"You sucked my arm off!"

I like heist movies. They are the rare opportunity for the audience to indulge in wish-fulfillment illegal enterprises. They are the story of a team of little guys striking back at the big guys. They sit comfortably, smack dab in the middle of drama and comedy. They ooze cool. And Steven Soderbergh, American auteur, is, in fact, a modern day master of the genre. He gave the world the Danny Ocean films, and added to his heist canon last year with the plucky Logan Lucky.

Summary:

Jimmy Logan is unlucky. His whole family is. His brother, one armed (I should say, one handed) Clyde, says the family is cursed. After losing his job, and on the brink of losing his daughter, Jimmy decides  enough is enough. He's going to do something drastic. And he has a heckuva plan. He's going to rob a bank. Or, more specifically, he's going to rob a NASCAR Speedway in North Carolina.

Pros:

A Good Crew: You need a great rogue's gallery for a great heist film, and Soderbergh has collected a doozy: Channing Tatum has decided, lately, that he's going to be a good actor, and not just a pretty face, and he's doing great work; speaking of pretty faces, Riley Keough plays it cool as lil' sis, Mellie, a woman with a plan and a lead foot; Adam Driver continues to cement himself as one of the best, nuanced actors of his generation as Clyde; Daniel Craig, James Bond himself, returns to character acting and delivers his Joe Bang with relish (with a dash of low sodium salt (can you believe someone thought of that?)). Jimmy, as the lead, gets most of the character beats in the script, but everyone else is talented enough to bring charisma and detail to characters that the script just does not have time enough to develop thoroughly. I'd definitely watch these guys go on another job together.

Damn, Soderbergh is Good: He knows how to frame a shot, and put a film together, there is no denying. He sets his shots up with little fanfare, but they are ALL solidly balanced and beautifully composed. His art is sneaky, and you'd be forgiven for not noticing, but, seriously, the next time you watch a Soderbergh film, watch how the lines in the frame correlate and how he balances the space. Beautiful. I was pretty sure that he did photography on all of his movies (cuz when you're that good, why not?), but I was surprised to see the DP billed as "Peter Andrews." Then I found out that "Peter Andrews" is the name Steven Soderbergh uses to DP his own movies. And "Mary Ann Bernard" is the name he uses to edit them, too. Soderbergh is a national damn treasure.

Groovy Sounds: The movie sports a wonderful soundtrack: from John Denver's country ballads, to Creedence Clearwater Revival's anti-establishment rager, "Fortunate Son," to David Holmes' funky underscore, Logan Lucky comes stocked with great tunes to give it that cool factor that is so necessary to a great heist film.

Show, Not Tell: Soderbergh decides to show, and not tell, us character details, and the film is littered with such moments. We get to know a lot about Jimmy and his daughter while they fix up his truck in the beginning. We get more of a glimpse into how he works when he, in emotional tumult after losing his job, immediately calms down after playing John Denver's "Country Roads" in the tape deck. Clyde refuses to be known as a one-armed man: he does a quick bar keeping stunt after removing the prosthetic, one-handed, after explaining how he still, technically has two arms and is just missing his left forearm and hand. Riley Keough is all business, strong and silent, a dutiful aunt and a capable getaway driver: she weathers her brother-in-law's bluster in the moment, only to get a measure of revenge later. Joe bang is a manic red-neck lunatic genius: he even takes a moment, mid heist, to explain the science of his improvised gummy bear "explosive" (not a "bomb," thank you very much). A lesser script, and filmmaker, would have packed the screen to the gills with character moments and long expositional monologues, but Soderbergh keeps his train sailing, and allows the audience to get to know the characters in subtle, clever ways.

Great Script: Every great heist movie walks a balance beam between comedy and drama. You need pathos to get your characters to the point where they are desperate enough to commit crime, but you need levity to make the audience root for them. Soderbergh is a master of toeing this line. Logan Lucky features a tight, funny script that keeps the crime rooted in something real, but keeps you laughing, and rooting, all along the way. If you didn't shed a tear when Jimmy's daughter opts to sing her daddy's favorite song, instead of a Rhianna tune, at her pageant, then you just might not have a soul. I also liked that they weren't just robbing a bank: we've seen enough bank robberies. There are only so many ways that you can rob a bank. So, why not rob NASCAR? And why not feature a jail break, and a jail-break-back-in, for good measure?

Cons:

A Tad Too Long: Logan Lucky is two minutes shy of two hours, but it feeeeeeels long. I would have liked to have things tightened up a bit. I'm not sure where you would cut this one, and I really have no standing to criticize Steven Soderbergh, but this one felt a little long-winded, which robs the great How-Did-They-Do-It portion of the film, and forces the sequel send up ending to lose some of its sting.

In Conclusion:

Steven Soderbergh is one of America's best filmmakers. He can make art house wonders and rollicking heist films in equal measure. Logan Lucky  is an excellent addition to his canon.

Should You Watch It?

Oh yeah. Consider this a must-watch for heist film aficionados. Although, you could just watch it because it's a good movie. It's on Amazon Prime Video, if you have a subscription, and is worth the afternoon it'll take to watch it.

Miscellany:

- The script is credited to "Rebecca Blunt." That is, supposedly, a pseudonym for Jules Asner. Who is married to... Steven Soderbergh. He really keeps it all in-house. Soderbergh sidestepped the Big Studio system for this film and gained near complete creative control over the entire thing. Even the marketing, posters, and movie trailers were corralled by him. That's pretty rad.

- During the prison sequence, the prisoners demand copies of The Winds of Winter, and A Dream of Spring, which are the last two installments in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire sequence. The prisoners refuse to believe that the books have not been published, and thus cannot be purchased for the prison library. This is a reference to the absurd amount of time it takes Martin to write his books. And I laughed, heartily.
- An in-film newscaster refers to the robbers as Ocean's Seven-Eleven.