Logan Lucky (2017)

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Don’t expect a joke-riddled laugh riot with Logan Lucky. The movie’s more of a quirky ensemble character piece by way of a heist movie. Channing Tatum and Adam Driver star as West Virginia brothers who conspire with a jailed safe-breaker (played by Daniel Craig) to steal cash from a major NASCAR event. Steven Soderbergh directs this fluffy drama/comedy and fills out the cast with Seth MacFarlane, Katie Holmes, Hilary Swank, and Dwight Yoakham. Logan Lucky is character-driven for the first three-quarters and then turns into a full-blown heist narrative in the home stretch, complete with Shyamalan-like twists and plot revelations. The movie could have ended before the change in tone and I would have liked it just the same.

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I enjoyed the movie primarily for Tatum and Driver’s portrayals. Tatum’s character is an instantly likeable one, introduced while working on his truck and talking to his young daughter. The stand-out, climactic scene in the movie is actually one between the same two characters. (I cried and I don’t even have kids.) Driver gives the film’s most mesmerizing performance. He’s quiet and still, very understated and yet very specific in his vocalizations — you absolutely believe he comes from the backwoods of West Virgina. He reminds me of a character from a Coen Brothers movie. Everyone else in the movie is playing a bit more broadly than these two, with Daniel Craig playing a bit of a fuss-bucket and Hilary Swank doing her best Clint Eastwood impersonation.

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