Those searching for a theme to categorize the career of Director
Steven Soderbergh will be left searching. He is a man of seemingly
unlimited interests. To take just enough examples to prove my point:
his projects have ranged from an epic biopic of Che Gueverra, a
remake of a Russian science fiction movie, an action movie built
around the physicality of a female MMA wrestler, a no-budget movie
set in a doll factory starring non-actors, a remake of a rat pack
heist movie with the biggest movie stars in the world, a TV show
about a hospital in NYC in the year 1900.
Logan Lucky is no exception to the rule that there are no rules. This
movie takes place in present day West Virginia and concerns the Logan
family’s heist of the Coca Cola NASCAR speedway. You could say it’s
like Ocean’s Eleven because it technically is in the same heist
genre, but really the movie are not the same at all. Or to put in
another way, they are as different as Las Vegas is to Appalachia.
Logan Lucky is a lot of fun. In particular, you sense the deft hand
of an experienced storyteller at work in what Soderbergh chooses to
leave out of scenes. How the heist itself works is not really
explained fully beforehand, so we experience how it works as the
heist progresses. This was probably a good move because the heist,
being somewhat realistic, is also not super complicated (as opposed
to say Ocean’s Eleven). It does succeed in passing the Heist Test,
a test I’m making up now (although it probably already exists
somewhere).
The Heist Test consists merely of watching the movie and spotting
some obvious clue that the authorities have been shown in the movie
that should tip them off to the perpetrators. An example of a movie
that fails the Heist Test is Spike Lee’s “Inside Man.” In that
movie, the robbers make all their hostages shed their clothes, put on
the same uniform as the robbers, and they all walk out the front
door. The authorities could have easily just had all the hostages put
their clothes back on. The people without any clothes to put back on
are the robbers. Heist solved. The authorities in “Inside Man”
don’t do this thus that movie fails the Heist test.
I think Logan Lucky passes the Heist Test. It does this in a nifty
way by transforming the Heist of a Speedway more into an insurance
scam. That is it takes away anyone’s motive for solving the heist.
That sort of is a spoiler but isn’t really.
Logan Lucky stars Channing Tatum as Jimmy Logan, mastermind, Adam
Driver as Clyde Logan, his sibling and sidekick in the scheme, and
Daniel Craig as Joe Bang, an incarcerated bank vault specialist. They
all sport Appalachian accents. Weirdly this seems the suit the Brit
the best. Then there is Seth MacFarlane who plays a racecar sponsor
named Max Chilblain. I couldn’t tell at all where his accent hailed
from.
Logan Lucky exploits the regular fun from its Appalachian characters
and setting while undercutting the stereotypes sometimes in the same
line of a scene. For one particular good instance, Joe Bang makes
what can best be described as a white trash bomb out of bleach and
gummy bears, but then successfully explains it using chemistry
equations. I had a good time watching Logan Lucky. It’s a good
addition to the Pretty Good Soderbergh shelf.
