5 Star

A Man and Realism is a Thing.

From seasoned actor John Carroll Lynch (Fargo, Volcano, Face/Off, Gothika, Gran Torino), he explodes onto the directing scene with an outstanding début. Lucky comes from first time writers Logan Sparks and Drago Sumonja, which just proves that you can get it right the first time round. Lucky is a superlative film, where even if you know everything there is still so much to learn.

Lucky (Harry Dean Stanton, The Green Mile, Alien, Pretty in Pink, Repo Man, Escape from New York) is a man who has seen his fair share of life. As part of his ninety years of life he spent the war years as a cook on an ammunitions supply ship, for the destroyers during the South Pacific campaign, hence the name ‘Lucky’.

He has lived his solitary life in the small, off the beaten track town of Piru, California and he is set in his ways, with a strict routine when he wakes. A cigarette, five yoga moves exercise, a glass of milk, a black coffee and another couple of cigarettes, before he heads to Joe’s (Barry Shabaka Henley, The Terminal, Rush Hour, Collateral) diner for another one of his daily occupations, the crossword.

After that it is back home for his quiz shows before he heads to his night time haunt Elaine’s bar, where he see his regular ‘friends’ Elaine (Beth Grant, Donnie Darko, Speed), Paulie (James Darren, Time Tunnel, The Guns of Navarone), Howard (David Lynch, Twin Peaks, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me), Joe and barman Vincent (Hugo Armstrong, Political Disasters).

At Elaine’s they discuss all manner of things, but it is always Lucky who is the common denominator. However, when Howard announces that his best friend ‘President Roosevelt’ (his tortoise) has gone missing, Lucky just does not understand Howard’s loss.

“Is he a homing turtle? Tortoise!”

But it is the next morning that Lucky gets his biggest shock. While waiting for his coffee maker to warm up he is mesmerised by the flashing light of the clock that has never been set, then he hits the floor. Time to see Dr Kneedler (Ed Begley Jr, Book Club, This Is Spinal Tap) who cannot tell him anything, he knows he smokes, he drinks and all his tests have come back negative.