These Logans are Lucky
By Dwayne Tillman
It kinda goes without saying that right now, things in the world are, for lack of a better word, a bit ominous; what with the presence of actual Nazis and the legitimate threat of nuclear war and all. It’s all just a bit much if I’m being honest. This in mind, Logan Lucky, which sees the return of the great Steven Soderbergh after a four-year hiatus, couldn’t feel more welcome. Logan Lucky isn’t a cinematic landmark, nor will it set the world on fire. Its greatest strength (and arguably its biggest weakness) is that it doesn’t try to be those things. It’s the type of low-key stunner that we rarely come across these days and the type that demands appreciation when it does. In a time where things often feel so uncertain and confusing, it’s an absolute rush of fresh air to observe a director, one who’s completely in his element, work his unpretentious, effortless magic.
After a few years experimenting with different genres with films like Haywire and Contagion, Logan Lucky sees a return to Soderbergh’s days in the heist genre. Our protagonists are the Logan brothers, Jimmy (Soderbergh regular Channing Tatum) and Clyde (Adam Driver). They’re both a bit, well, unlucky. Jimmy has recently been fired from his job as a miner, while Clyde spends his days as a bartender; a one-armed one at that, after losing it in the war. They also don’t have much money. Their plan? Rob the NASCAR speedway. To do so, they enlist the help of their sister Mellie (Riley Keough) and explosives expert Joe Bang (Daniel Craig) to pull off the perfect heist and make themselves, well, lucky.
After some time away from filmmaking (well, feature film making; he spent his ‘downtime’ doing HBO’s The Knick), Soderbergh could have easily re-treaded familiar ground here, rehashing his Ocean’s films. Soderbergh, however, is too talented a writer and director for that. While the heist elements in Logan Lucky are zippy and giddily entertaining, the real kicker here is how endearing his characters come across as. On the surface, it’s easy to define the film as something of an Ocean’s Eleven with hillbillies, but Soderbergh deftly avoids falling into stereotypes of ‘hillbilly America’, instead presenting us with a troupe of likeable characters who you feel have something actually at stake. The film avoids condescension, instead taking a sweet natured approach that gives the film its surprising beating heart.
This mainly works because of the cast’s chemistry, something of which is there in the truck loads. Tatum and Soderbergh at this point are almost as formidable a team as DiCaprio and Scorsese, with Tatum’s likeable charm being a perfect fit Jimmy’s everyman. If Adam Driver proves anything here, it’s that he should really do more comedy, because his almost dead-pan, monotony steals the show. Well, it almost would have, were it not for the man James Bond. It’s easy to forget what a versatile character Daniel Craig can be, but his performance as Joe Bang is a welcome reminder. In stark contrast to his last performance as Bond in Spectre, where he seemed almost bored, Craig is a live wire here, and it’s an absolute treat to behold. Props also go to Riley Keough, who makes a big impression despite being unjustly underutilised. If there’s any justice in the world, she’ll break big very, very soon.
Logan Lucky is perhaps less successful in its latter section, where it loses some of its momentum. After the breathless first two-thirds, the film crawls to a conclusion that adds up to…not much. The introduction of the FBI investigation (lead by Hilary Swank) feels a bit rushed and shoehorned in, and while Swank is always a welcome presence, her arc seems too truncated to make much of an impression. What the film is saying (if it’s saying anything at all), is also less developed. You can, for the most part, forgive this, however, purely because Logan Lucky is such a riotous blast of a film. Sometimes you don’t realise how much you need something like this until you’ve got it. So sit down and let it wash its breezy charm over you.