Lucky is a 2017 American drama film directed by John Carroll Lynch, written by Logan Sparks and Drago Sumonja, and starring Harry Dean Stanton. It was one of Stanton's final onscreen roles before his death. 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
90-year-old Lucky lives 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 gets coffee at a diner and works on a crossword puzzle from his daily newspaper. Lucky then walks to a convenience store and buys another pack of cigarettes and a carton of milk. The owner, Bibi, says that her son Juan is having his tenth birthday in a week. That evening, Lucky stops at a bar called Elaine's and has Bloody Marias with the locals. One of the regulars, Howard, is depressed that his pet tortoise, named President 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 says that Lucky has out-smoked and outlived the majority of people his age. At the diner, Lucky mentions how he fell and everyone becomes concerned for his safety. That night, Lucky calls a friend while watching TV. Lucky says that when he was a boy in Kentucky, he shot a mockingbird with his BB gun. It was the saddest thing he ever experienced.
Back at the bar, Lucky listens to a story from local Paulie about how he met and married his wife. Lucky, on the other hand, never married or had any lasting relationships. Lucky sees Howard talking with lawyer Bobby Lawrence about making a will for himself and wanting to leave all of his possessions to President Roosevelt. Lucky becomes hostile and challenges Bobby to a fight outside. However, Paulie says that Bobby will not fight and that Lucky should go home. Later, Loretta, a woman who works at the diner, 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 concerts. While having coffee at the diner, Lucky runs into Bobby and mentions his accident. In turn, Bobby talks about a time when he nearly got hit by a garbage truck and tells Lucky to always be prepared for the unexpected. Lucky visits a pet store and buys a box of crickets.
Lucky meets Fred, a World War II Marine veteran, and mentions his time in the US Navy during the war in the Pacific. Lucky got his nickname from having the relatively safe job of cook on an LST. (In his own life, the actor Stanton did a stint as a cook aboard the USS LST-970, in World War II.) Fred tells a story about how after the Marines secured a beach, the locals began to commit suicide by jumping off cliffs. After a battle, he encountered a child, smiling amidst the carnage. Fred remarked to his fellow Marine that at least someone was glad to see them, only to be told that the girl was a Buddhist and was smiling at the prospect of dying. The story leaves Lucky speechless. Upon returning home, he sets the clock on his coffee machine to the correct time, stopping it from blinking. He attends Juan's birthday party and enjoys himself. He spontaneously sings "Volver Volver" for the party goers.
That evening, Lucky returns to the bar for more Bloody Marias. Howard has not found his tortoise and has concluded 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 then delivers a speech that everything goes away eventually and that we are left with nothing. Elaine asks what is one supposed to do with nothing. Lucky replies "you smile". The remark transforms the mood of the bar; Lucky lights up his cigarette and steps outside.
The next morning, Lucky goes for a walk through town, passing by the outdoor botanic garden and the bar. In the desert, Lucky looks up at a saguaro cactus and lights a cigarette. He smiles before heading back into town. As Lucky walks down the road alone, a tortoise trudges nearby.
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]
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