geezer cinema: logan lucky (steven soderbergh, 2017)

Letterboxd member "Katie" said of Logan Lucky, "this movie is the only good thing left in this godforsaken planet and we took it for granted. 5 stars out of 5". That put me in a good mood prior to watching it. It has been compared to Steven Soderbergh's "Ocean" movies ... I only saw the first one and wasn't overwhelmed enough to watch the next two. But I like Soderbergh's films in general, and have a soft spot in my heart for Out of Sight. I also liked his television series The Knick.

Soderbergh had taken a hiatus prior to Logan Lucky ... he did a lot of other things (like The Knick) but did not direct any features. So Logan Lucky was anticipated by his fans. He was able to put together a great cast, including Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Daniel Craig, Riley Keough, Hilary Swank, and Katie Holmes. The film takes place in the South, and the various actors' various accents are variable, to be kind ... only Tatum actually grew up in the South (I would have thought Riley Keough was a Southerner ... she's Elvis' granddaughter, after all ... but nope). The writing is so entertaining, and the acting (outside of the accents) so fun, that the movie scoots along, and those accents don't really matter.

On one level, there's nothing here ... as one character says of the robbery that is the central plot line of the film, "I heard that they're calling it 'Ocean's 7-Eleven', 'cos they found that truck with the money behind a convenience store." Yet Soderbergh pulls it off. The robbery is intricately plotted (they are going to rob the Charlotte Motor Speedway during the Coca-Cola 600), and it often seems like things are getting away from Soderbergh. But it all comes together, and there is real pleasure in seeing that happen.

There are a lot of pseudonyms in the credits. Soderbergh's wife Jules Asner apparently wrote the screenplay ("Rebecca Blunt", an unknown, gets the credit), and Soderbergh, as is often the case, is the Director of Photography (as "Peter Andrews") and Editor (as "Mary Ann Bernard"). None of this matters as you are watching Logan Lucky, of course. I was having such a good time I didn't think about any of it until the movie was over.

I'd say "Katie" went a bit overboard with "5 stars out of 5", but Logan Lucky definitely hit the spot.

(Letterboxd list of our Geezer Cinema movies.)