Logan Lucky (2017)

Film: Logan Lucky (2017)
Stars: Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Daniel Craig, Riley Keough, Katie Holmes
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Oscar History: Soderbergh had a really big 2000, but otherwise really was never Oscar's cup-of-tea...doubtful this changes things.
Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

I always find it amusing, if a bit reassuring, that actors or directors who claim they are "retiring" almost always renege on their intentions to retire within a couple of years.  Yes, there are a couple of cases like Gene Hackman or Sean Connery where it seems to have stuck, but by-and-large, particularly when they're under seventy, famous figures in cinema almost always turn their back on that retirement within a few years, clearly meaning they wanted a break more so than anything else.  Steven Soderbergh is the most recent example of this, after claiming that he was retiring from the movies but then quickly returning.  Logan Lucky is his first feature-film in four years, and the director who is perhaps most well-known for loving ensemble casts at the expense of star vehicles, has lost little of his visual skill even if Logan Lucky is a bit of a trifle, albeit a tasty one.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film centers around the Logan Brothers, Jimmy (Tatum) and Clyde (Driver), two men who are down-on-their-luck, a theory that Clyde connects to their genetics.  Clyde lost his arm in Iraq, and Jimmy is recently unemployed and worried that his daughter will be leaving him as his ex-wife Bobbie Jo (Holmes) wants to move due to her successful husband getting a new job.  Jimmy decides that he wants to end his life of mediocrity and better provide for his daughter, and in the process get back at the company that fired him by robbing from the stadium he worked construction.  His plan goes array when what was initially intended to be a small-time gig turns into him being forced to rob the Coca-Cola 600, one of the biggest in the NASCAR series.  He recruits an explosives expert appropriately-named Joe Bang (Craig...and do all Soderbergh films have characters that sound like they've been plucked out of a Tarantino picture & I've just never noticed or is this unique to Logan Lucky?), and along with the Logans' sister Mellie (Keough), they orchestrate a robbery, with of course unintended consequences.

Heist movies are one of my favorite cinematic genres, as I love seeing the mechanics of how a con is put into action, and this is hardly Soderbergh's first time at the rodeo (his highest-grossing films being the Ocean's franchise), so this works well.  The film is surprisingly brisk for a picture that at first feels very slow, to the point where I thought my audience (who were not getting the deeply dry humor coming from Driver at all) might start walking out, but once the film gets into more consistent molds, it entered the territory of crowd-pleaser while maintaining an abstractness that makes the picture unique.  Soderbergh is so good at assembling strong ensembles, and while occasionally his choices don't work (Seth MacFarlane is a bit too cartoonish as a rude British businessman seems like the weakest link of the picture), the chemistry between the three siblings in particular is excellent.  Keough is an actress that I wasn't really familiar with, but I liked her breeziness with Mellie, and the way she's positioned as a "screw-up" to someone like her former sister-in-law and yet clearly the most responsible and level-headed of the Logan siblings.  She's had bit parts now in Magic Mike and Mad Max: Fury Road, as well as winning a handful of plaudits for American Honey, but I'm hoping she soon gets a star vehicle as she's clearly capable of carrying one.

The movie's ending might be a bit hard to get-your-head-around, and honestly it was a little hard for me to figure out what was happening even as it was being spelled out (the plotting feels like it missed one crucial scene toward the end, perhaps something a bit more expository for the audience), but by-and-large this is a genuinely funny and amusing movie, and well worth Soderbergh's return to the screen.  No, it doesn't rank amongst his very best pictures (which I'd wager is Magic Mike, but would buy Traffic if you argued hard-enough), but it's a lot of fun in a filmic summer that was lacking in that attribute.

Those are my thoughts on the picture-how about yours?  If you've seen it, share some of your theories, particularly over whether Sebastian Stan or Hilary Swank was your favorite cameo (my thought was it was the latter, who totally sold her by-the-book FBI agent), and if not-who do you hope Soderbergh reunites with next from his close-knit cavalcade of frequent actors?