Lucky. (15.)
Directed by John Carroll Lynch.
Starring Harry Dean Stanton, Beth Grant, Ron Livingston, Ed Begley Jr., Tom Skerritt, Barry Shabaka Henley and David Lynch. 88 mins. Out now on Blu-ray and DVD from Eureka!
Harry Dean Stanton Is Lucky, the opening frame of the movie says. I'd have said talented myself, but then talent is a kind of luck and possessing the kind of face and vocal delivery that the camera could remain enthusiastic about for over half a century is a special blessing. As is having some of your buddies get together to make a film all about your life and your stubborn resistance to dying. This meant, if nothing else, that after a great career mostly playing character roles or bit parts, his last performance was a lead. It was also fortuitous that the 91-year old stayed alive long enough to finish it but laid down his hat just before its US release. Perhaps the word is charmed.
Lucky is really a unique piece. It's a fictionalised autobiography which imagines Stanton as the figure of Lucky, an old man in a cowboy hat living in a tiny Texas or maybe Arizona town. His daily routine is cups of coffee, lots of smokes, some yoga, a walk down to the diner, watching quiz shows on TV and maybe a nightcap at a local bar, usually a Bloody Mary. HDS's last film is the first film directed by JGL, a jobbing actor whose face you'll have consistently failed to put a name to for the last twenty-five years. (He was Mr Marge in Fargo, he was one of the brothers that started MacDonalds in The Founder and in the latest season on The Handmaid's Tale he lasted one episode before being hung for being gay.) Just about everybody involved seems to have been a friend and the script, by Logan Sparks and Drago Sumonja, is full of details taken from Stanton's life, such as the opening exchange with the diner owner (Henley): "You are nothing." "You are nothing." "Thank you," which was his routine greeting with a valet in LA.
The film also drops in little references to his film career. There is Alien reunion between the second and third crew member to be killed off when he meets up with Tom Skerrit to talk over their involvement in the war in the Pacific. There's a moment when he sings a song in Spanish which reminds us of his contribution to the Paris, Texas soundtrack.
I don't think there was any way in the world that I wasn't going to love this film. Harry Dean is the star of my favourite film, Repo Man, and his delivery of the line, “It's just more stuff I gotta do,” in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me has been one of the guiding refrains of my life. He's a favourite actor for the Discerning Film Knowall and here he is in a cast full of semi-familiar actors: there's the star of 60's TV show Time Tunnel; the evil Christian battleaxe in Donnie Darko; the star of Office Space and David Lynch himself as a man who wants to make his (escaped) pet tortoise the beneficial of his will.
And on one level it's all so easy. It has a cosy familiarity: people drinking coffee and smoking reverently. Who isn't going to get a little rush of pleasure from hearing Lynch announce, "You look peppy." But there is something deeper here, about how you face up to ageing and accept death and in its final half-hour it transcends its situation and becomes something truly moving. It is an expression of his personal philosophy which we could categorise as a form hard boiled buddhism. The final scene is momentous, yet casual. It was really something, and yet kind of nothing.
Harry Dean has gone and he will not be coming back to the five and dime, but it was great while it lasted and it lasted a long time. We should be lucky, and this one time we were.
Extras.
The pick of these would be the feature length, 2012 documentary Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction which has German filmmaker Sophie Huber trail HDS around LA as he tells some stories and sings some songs and tells some stories about the songs he sings. People like Sam Shepard and Kris Kristofferson pop up to talk about him but it's mostly just him. Its relaxed style makes it a perfect companion piece for Lucky.
There are also film interviews with the director John Carroll Lynch and writers Logan Sparks and Drago Sumonja
A nice little booklet accompanies the disc with appreciations by critic Jason Wood and screenwriter Logan Sparks and an interview with the director.
Directed by John Carroll Lynch.
Starring Harry Dean Stanton, Beth Grant, Ron Livingston, Ed Begley Jr., Tom Skerritt, Barry Shabaka Henley and David Lynch. 88 mins. Out now on Blu-ray and DVD from Eureka!
Harry Dean Stanton Is Lucky, the opening frame of the movie says. I'd have said talented myself, but then talent is a kind of luck and possessing the kind of face and vocal delivery that the camera could remain enthusiastic about for over half a century is a special blessing. As is having some of your buddies get together to make a film all about your life and your stubborn resistance to dying. This meant, if nothing else, that after a great career mostly playing character roles or bit parts, his last performance was a lead. It was also fortuitous that the 91-year old stayed alive long enough to finish it but laid down his hat just before its US release. Perhaps the word is charmed.
Lucky is really a unique piece. It's a fictionalised autobiography which imagines Stanton as the figure of Lucky, an old man in a cowboy hat living in a tiny Texas or maybe Arizona town. His daily routine is cups of coffee, lots of smokes, some yoga, a walk down to the diner, watching quiz shows on TV and maybe a nightcap at a local bar, usually a Bloody Mary. HDS's last film is the first film directed by JGL, a jobbing actor whose face you'll have consistently failed to put a name to for the last twenty-five years. (He was Mr Marge in Fargo, he was one of the brothers that started MacDonalds in The Founder and in the latest season on The Handmaid's Tale he lasted one episode before being hung for being gay.) Just about everybody involved seems to have been a friend and the script, by Logan Sparks and Drago Sumonja, is full of details taken from Stanton's life, such as the opening exchange with the diner owner (Henley): "You are nothing." "You are nothing." "Thank you," which was his routine greeting with a valet in LA.
The film also drops in little references to his film career. There is Alien reunion between the second and third crew member to be killed off when he meets up with Tom Skerrit to talk over their involvement in the war in the Pacific. There's a moment when he sings a song in Spanish which reminds us of his contribution to the Paris, Texas soundtrack.
I don't think there was any way in the world that I wasn't going to love this film. Harry Dean is the star of my favourite film, Repo Man, and his delivery of the line, “It's just more stuff I gotta do,” in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me has been one of the guiding refrains of my life. He's a favourite actor for the Discerning Film Knowall and here he is in a cast full of semi-familiar actors: there's the star of 60's TV show Time Tunnel; the evil Christian battleaxe in Donnie Darko; the star of Office Space and David Lynch himself as a man who wants to make his (escaped) pet tortoise the beneficial of his will.
And on one level it's all so easy. It has a cosy familiarity: people drinking coffee and smoking reverently. Who isn't going to get a little rush of pleasure from hearing Lynch announce, "You look peppy." But there is something deeper here, about how you face up to ageing and accept death and in its final half-hour it transcends its situation and becomes something truly moving. It is an expression of his personal philosophy which we could categorise as a form hard boiled buddhism. The final scene is momentous, yet casual. It was really something, and yet kind of nothing.
Harry Dean has gone and he will not be coming back to the five and dime, but it was great while it lasted and it lasted a long time. We should be lucky, and this one time we were.
Extras.
The pick of these would be the feature length, 2012 documentary Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction which has German filmmaker Sophie Huber trail HDS around LA as he tells some stories and sings some songs and tells some stories about the songs he sings. People like Sam Shepard and Kris Kristofferson pop up to talk about him but it's mostly just him. Its relaxed style makes it a perfect companion piece for Lucky.
There are also film interviews with the director John Carroll Lynch and writers Logan Sparks and Drago Sumonja
A nice little booklet accompanies the disc with appreciations by critic Jason Wood and screenwriter Logan Sparks and an interview with the director.
