Nothing elevates the stakes in a heist movie quite like a hostage situation. It’s part of the reason movies like Dog Day Afternoon and Die Hard have become such classics. Human lives are always excellent collateral, and the tension that builds between abductor and hostage often gives way to emotionally complex relationships that are perfect for exploring on screen. Many films have set out to capitalize on this particular tension — hell, even Paul Blart: Mall Cop had decent fun with the concept — and because of this, there’s always the possibility that hostage films will start to feel tired and repetitive. Thankfully, this is not the case with Daniel Brown’s latest, Your Lucky Day, a smart thriller that manages to be lean and mean while still offering up some excellent social criticism.
The movie takes place on Christmas Eve (cue that aforementioned Die Hard reference, again) at a local corner store called Sip ‘n’ Go. In the cold and rainy evening, the store’s owner Amir (Mousa Hussein Kraish) stands lackadaisically behind the counter zoning in and out of interactions with his customers. Towards the back of the store, a young couple browses a freezer chest for an impulsive cart of ice cream. Near the register, an older white man loudly chats up Amir as he scans a handful of lotto tickets at the store’s self-scanner. The man is brash and racist in his conversation (at one point he asks Amir, who is Indian, how life is with his “betrothed child bride”), and the disdain for his seemingly wealthy, privileged lifestyle can be felt from everyone in the store.
Somewhere near the front of the shop browsing magazines is a young drug dealer (the late Angus Cloud) whose ears perk up immediately when the man realizes he, unbelievingly, has a winning lotto ticket. This is the precise moment when the subtle Clerksian feel of the film gets scrapped in exchange for an intense, all-systems-go heist. Unable to resist the temptation of a $156 million dollar winning ticket, Cloud’s character makes the split second decision — in a scene that is as creepy as it is captivating — to hold the man at gunpoint and demand he hand over the goods. From here, things quickly spiral out of control, and Cloud’s character does everything he can to keep up with his constantly evolving predicament and still get away with the cash.
Many people will no doubt want to see this film for a chance to watch Cloud on screen in a role that isn’t the titular Fezco (“Fez”) for which he is known from HBO’s drama-drenched Euphoria. Cloud, who unexpectedly passed away earlier this year at the age of 25, stole the hearts of Euphoria fans everywhere with his portrayal of the show’s drawling, sensitive drug dealer. Though his character was only supposed to stick around for the first season, creator Sam Levinson made the decision to keep him in season two — a decision that paid back in spades. Fans have noted that Cloud’s real-life persona seemed exactly like that of the drug dealer he played on the show (along with his freakishly similar look to the late rapper, Mac Miller); however, Cloud often insisted in interviews that he and Fez were not the same person.
Before his death, Cloud was working on a handful of other films, most of which are still being released posthumously. His talent on Euphoria was so promising, that it’s understandable how he could have gone on to have an extremely lucrative career. However, after seeing his role in Your Lucky Day, one wonders if he ever would have been able to get out from under that sympathetic drug dealer trope for which he became known. If it wasn’t for the fact that this is obviously a movie completely unrelated to anything Levinson has done, one could easily think Cloud’s character, Sterling, is really just Fez checking in on the competition of another local convenience store when he is suddenly overtaken by the idea to steal that ticket. This is not to say that his portrayal of Sterling is bad — on the contrary, he is what makes the film so much fun — just that it would have been interesting to see him step outside familiar territory.
Even so, Sterling is funny and enlightened all at once, providing smart asides to the unlikely group of hostages as they debate over whether or not they want to help him get away with his crime in exchange for splitting the winnings. He tells them, “We all had the same thought” about the jerk who ended up winning. He was “just the one” that did something about it. Slowly, his hostages begin to come around. At one point he asks Ana Marlene (Jessica Garza), the wife who just stopped into the store with her husband for a quick pint of ice cream to feed her pregnancy cravings, “What’s your name, shorty?” It’s the kind of thing Fez would say, but it also works well in the context of Your Lucky Day, distilling the tension with humor and charm, making viewers believe they, too, would do anything to help this man. And that is partially why Your Lucky Day works so well. Cloud, along with the rest of the cast’s unlikely team of impromptu thieves, is incredibly likeable. So much so that their crimes no longer matter. All that matters is that they get away with the cash.
Underneath the film’s fast-paced charm lies a searing criticism of wealth discrepancy that acts as the quiet engine to the entire movie. Each of the film’s unlikely robbers is representative of the various social classes that consistently get cheated by society’s skewed distribution of wealth and the false promise of the American Dream. The film seems to suggest by stealing the winning ticket from a wealthy white man and splitting the winnings between them, this could be a way to even the playing field. However, the addition of a merciless band of dirty cops who are also hellbent on getting their hands on the money provides the film with another layer of criticism meant to highlight just how hard it is to get ahead if you aren’t white or rich or both. Brown manages to convey these ideas without ever feeling preachy or over-the-top so that the resulting effect is a thriller that is equal parts fun and clever.
Still, we must remember that this is a thriller which means the smarts can only go so far before destroying all of the fun. And Brown understands this enough to offset some of the heavier handed moments with suspenseful action sequences that feel fresh and exciting. Garza is magnetic as Ana as she kicks ass with her pregnant belly on full display. She is the brains behind the spontaneous heist, and she keeps her smarts with her until the very end. Overall, Your Lucky Day is a film willing to take a gamble on a tried-and-true premise. Unfortunately for us all, it ended up churning out a film that’s not to be missed.
Photo distributed by Well Go USA Entertainment
The post Your Lucky Day appeared first on Spectrum Culture.