Special Exhibit: LOGAN LUCKY

Year: 2017

Duration: 119 minutes

Where to watch: Amazon Prime, Apple iTunes.

 

I love a good heist film, but the problem is that there aren't many of them with the amount of cleverness that this genre needs in order to be truly enjoyable. Modern audiences will most likely allude to Steven Soderbergh Ocean’s Trilogy, though I think only the first entry, 11, is outstanding. I found 12 frustrating and 13 just decent. Oh, and I guess Soderbergh also produced Ocean’s 8, which is not very good but at least more entertaining than the last two.

Luckily, Soderbergh has a fourth, less popular heist movie named Logan Lucky, which is just as good as the original Ocean, and probably even funnier, but which didn’t enjoy a great commercial success.

The Logan siblings, Jimmy (Channing Tatum), Clyde (Adam Driver) and Mellie (the underrated Riley Keough, who’s underused even here) plan to rob a NASCAR speedway by using its underground tunnels and their considerable ingenuity. They’re assisted by convict Joe Bang (a scene-stealing Daniel Craig), whom they most break out of jail and then back in before anyone realizes. Of course, being a caper, every other part of the plot should remain a surprise, so I will stop right here, and just tell you that the direction and writing of this film perform like well-tuned clockwork (the screenplay is credited to a “Rebecca Blunt”, but nobody has ever met her and there’s a lot of speculation that she doesn’t exist and that it’s just a pseudonym, maybe for Soderbergh’s wife).

The cast is rounded by Katie Holmes, Katherine Waterston, Seth MacFarlane, Sebastian Stan, Hilary Swank, and some funny cockroaches painted with nail polish. Also, if you’re into NASCAR, there’s a handful of racer cameos.

It’s been three years since I saw this film, but I’m laughing just by remembering it while writing this article, particularly at the hilarious prison riot sequence, which includes the funniest Game of Thrones joke ever.

If you just want to have a plain good time today, this is the film to pick.