Children lately could by no means perceive the decades-old custom of cozying up with your loved ones and tuning into any variety of sport exhibits in your native cable channels. Certain, Wheel of Fortune remains to be cooking with host Ryan Seacrest, whereas Ken Jennings and Mayim Bialik took the internet hosting reins of Jeopardy. However millennials could have been the final generational pit cease for that lived-in notion of gathering round your ridiculously heavy 4×3 tv and shouting the solutions to sure trivia questions earlier than the televised contestants can blurt them out first. If you happen to missed the boat, a brand new true-story drama from co-writer/director Samir Oliveros could assist fill the misplaced void: the retro-styled The Luckiest Man in America, starring a never-better Paul Walter Hauser (Black Fowl, Cruella).
Maybe the filmmaker took a web page out of equally styled efforts like HBO’s Profitable Time, however that is to not discredit the general really feel and enchantment of this small-scale stunner, based mostly on a wild real-life day that shocked a sure TV studio again within the Eighties. The Luckiest Man in America concurrently stays glossy, richly saturated, and trendy right through, regardless of the apparent visible nods to archaic media, and it is bolstered by a stellar solid that places us proper within the motion of the 12 months 1984.
[Don’t] Press Your Luck
Hauser performs Ted, an obvious everyman who has made all of it the best way from Ohio to Los Angeles to audition for the coveted sport present Press Your Luck, then hosted by Peter Tomarken (performed by the reliably very good Walton Goggins). He wins over the present’s government, Invoice Carruthers (David Strathairn), regardless of the present’s casting producer, Chuck (a deadpan-riotous Shamier Anderson), not precisely absorbing Ted’s ‘aw, shucks’ method.
It additionally does not assist that “Ted” is definitely an impostor, and the present’s staff quickly realizes he is actually named Michael Larson, nonetheless an Ohioan who faked his approach onto the audition stage simply to get their consideration. However Invoice can not resist the everyman look of Michael, and earlier than you already know, the self-proclaimed ice-cream truck driver is dolled up and becoming a member of the opposite contestants for a Press Your Luck taping the very subsequent day. However the “Ted” impostor ploy foreshadows extra shenanigans to come back…
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Sport present fanatics of a sure period could already know the saga that ensued on that fateful day — and only one look at this type of undertaking can tip off even the common movie fanatic that this is not an awe-inspiring Slumdog Millionaire-type story of an everyman successful well-deserved bucks. The sport present’s A-block proceeds like ordinary, with Larson befriending one fellow contestant (Brian Geraghty, a go-to for the throwback look) and eeking out one other (Patti Harrison, grasp of eye-rolling) by the point the primary industrial break hits, and that is when issues begin to run amok.
Sharp-witted manufacturing assistant Sylvia (Maisie Williams) is already thrown off by Michael’s insistence on breaking the present’s “requirements and practices” to make a shady cellphone name earlier than the B-block kicks off. And when it does, boy do the parents behind the scenes have their day lower out for them. As soon as it is Michael’s flip to spin the board and “press” on the proper second, hoping it lands on a high-value choice, it appears he can’t be stopped. However wait, does not the spin board bounce round at random? As soon as Invoice and his producing crew cannot precisely fathom why Michael cannot cease successful the large bucks, Invoice’s higher-up colleagues must step in and assist crack the case. It is a wild trip whose thrills we can’t additional spoil right here.
Paul Walter Hauser & Co. Make a Splash
You may simply really feel the momentum of this single-day saga by simply studying the phrases right here. And that aforementioned retro edge Oliveros achieves along with his little comedy-drama is bolstered by a thumping musical rating that is uniquely thrilling and simply plain cool. Throw in another enjoyable acquainted faces from previous TV exhibits and movies you have all loved through the years, together with a surprisingly chic cameo from the one and solely Johnny Knoxville (sure, him), and you have got a downright pleasurable little slice of game-show life that cleverly dismantles the artifice of ‘luck’ and glossy Hollywood fakery.
It is too unhealthy the latter half of the movie loses a little bit of steam as soon as all of Michael’s methods are sorted and a type of chaos ensues throughout the whole property. Hauser largely makes up for it by persevering with his sizzling streak of scene-stealing roles, with The Luckiest Man in America proving he can lead a function movie and never all the time get caught in these comic-relief supporting roles (as scrumptious as they all the time are, after all). From IFC Movies, The Luckiest Man in America is claimed to be launched someday in 2025 following a current pageant run, together with AFI Fest 2024 in October. Watch this area for extra info.