Lucky is, as his doctor tells him, “You’re old and getting older”. At one of his many routine stops around town, at the diner where he has coffee with lots of sugar and milk and works the crossword puzzle he is told by the owner, about Lucky’s smoking, “Those things are going to kill you” to which he respond’s “If they could’ve they would’ve.”

Lucky is a 90 year old man who has never been married, hasn’t any children and lives in a small town that he walks around every day making the same stops. He starts his day off, every day, with a cigarette, abbreviated yoga exercises, putting on one of his 4 outfits, goes to the diner, stops at bar where he trades quips, insults, outlooks on life with the bartender, the owner and a few of the regular customers, stops at the store on his way home to get a fresh container of milk everyday and then goes home to watch the game shows on television. He was in the navy as a young man, plays the harmonica and one day at a birthday party for the son of the owner of the grocery store sings a ballad in Spanish. These people, including the waitress from the diner, are Lucky’s ‘family’.

One day, unexpectedly, he falls in his kitchen and when he recovers he goes to his doctor to get the ‘older’ diagnosis. All in all his vital figures, such as blood pressure, are fine and there is no reason for the fall except he is getting nearer to the ‘end’ which has him questioning what that is like and what happens.

Most people will recognize the actor playing Lucky but usually will ask ‘What’s his name? You know he played in…” and in some cases may recognize the name but not seeing him in a picture wouldn’t recall what he looks like. Harry Dean Stanton plays Lucky and many things in the movie such as all the smoking, being in the navy and his picture as the young sailor, playing the harmonica, are taken from his real life. The director John Carroll Lynch and the screenwriters, Drago Sumonja and Logan Sparks all are friends of his and, probably, brought into the movie things they knew about Stanton but, this is not a biography of the actor.

“Lucky” is a movie that wouldn’t have been made if the genre of ‘small independent movies’ didn’t exist. Lasting 88 minutes there is no sense of being rushed and except for a few scenery shots neither are there shots just to expand the movie to a theatre running time. This is a film that would fit comfortably on a PBS station.  Talking about scenery the director of photography Tim Suhrstedt has some beautiful shots from morning to evening of the Arizona desert town and the mountains that surround it.

Along with Stanton there are some familiar looking faces like Ed Begley Jr., as the doctor, Tom Skerritt as another veteran who stops by at the diner, David Lynch, who gave Stanton one of his reoccurring roles in “Twin Peaks” including the latest sequel, as one of the bar regulars plus James Darren as another customer, Beth Grant , the owner of the bar, Barry Shabaka Henley, the owner of the diner, Ron Livingston as an attorney along with Yvonne Huff, Bertila Damas and Ana Mercedes.

Sadly on September 15, 2017, a month before “Lucky” was released, Harry Dean Stanton died at the age of 91 and this movie is a fitting tribute to his talents as an actor. I wonder if he found what he thought his character Lucky would at death?

Movie trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KLLkj84GAo