"We're Up All Night For Good Fun, We're Up All Night To Get (Logan) Lucky"

The South and its associated culture (and other parts of the country north of the South that hew closely to said country) are weird. Anything to do with redneck stuff is inherently just a little bit off-kilter. Not saying there aren't strange facets of the upper-crust life too (why are fish eggs considered a culinary delicacy among the wealthy again?) but having lived in Texas for over two decades, I'm well-aware of how a large share of the little details of everyday life around here really are just bizarre like certain colloquialisms, fashion traits, and societal faux pas. Filmmakers like Richard Linklater have used that truth heavily in their own films and now Logan Lucky is the newest film to utilize the inherent oddness of Southern customs as a backbone for entertaining cinema.


The Logan family has not had the best fortunes over the decades. Ancestors of this family have been struck by all kinds of disasters and troubles and two of the youngest descendants of this family, Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum) and Clyde Logan (Adam Driver), have very much felt the brunt of such a curse, or at least, that's what Clyde believes, he being a little superstitious and all. Not Jimmy though, he's got no time for believing in curses when he's trying to maintain a relationship with his daughter and also deal with being fired from his job for liability reasons. Considering all the misfortune he's dealing with, maybe there is something to that Logan family curse after all.

Jimmy's got a plan to reverse his fortunes though. He's got a target for a new heist that he, his brother and some accomplices, including incarcerated bank robber Joe Bang (Daniel Craig), can steal a whole bunch of money from. The target in question? Charlotte Motor Speedway. Jimmy used to do construction there so he knows just how they move the money and he's formulating a plan to steal that cash.  It's not gonna be easy, but if they do this heist right, they just might finally improve their lives and buck that Logan family curse yet.

Their heist in question brings out a lot of hilarious moments that are heavily reliant on both deadpan humor and some absurdist gags that seem to have been made with David Wain in mind. It's a unique brand of humor that differentiates Logan Lucky from both the style of humor and tone of past Steven Soderbergh heist film Ocean's Eleven and also gives Logan Lucky its own distinct personality to speak. One reason why a lot of the witty absurdist touches work so well is because of the aforementioned recognition of the strangeness of Southern culture in general since so many of the more oddball touches scattered throughout the story don't feel far removed from Southern reality at all.

For instance, people using the word "cauliflower" as an important code word? That totally feels like something I could see people doing around here in Texas. Even better, you don't have to have spent a day in your life in a more redneck part of the country to find Logan Lucky hilarious, gags like Daniel Craig ranting about "fake salt" or Adam Driver's beautiful line deliveries are just gonna work like gangbusters no matter what part of the country you're from. Rebecca Blunt's screenplay keeps the laughs coming at a steady pace while also giving the feature loads of memorable pieces of dialogue, with even a few extraneous scenes (most notably an encounter Jimmy Logan has with an on-the-road doctor played by Katherine Watterston) having their fair share of catchy and funny lines.

Merging Blunt's screenwriting with Steven Soderbergh's directing turns out to be a lovely match, especially since Soderbergh and cinematographer Peter Andrews seem to know just how to execute these gags on a visual level that makes them all the more humorous. For instance, there's a good batch of individual gags in here that are already funny on paper but get an extra dosage of humor added to them by framing them in wide shots and that's just one of the recurring visual traits of Logan Lucky that help accentuate its finer comedic points. Also helping to enhance the myriad of gags in Logan Lucky is an all-star cast that's clearly 110% committed to this deliriously enjoyable lunacy.

Channing Tatum ditches the male stripper life for a physical appearance that's so authentic to typical Southern guys it's almost scary. The facial hair, the ballcaps, the clothing, I've seen so many people dressed like him around here, it's the perfect attire for a guy who's supposed to embody the Southern everyman. Daniel Craig as Joe Bang is an absolute riot, the guy's got killer comedic timing it turns out and he puts it to mighty fine use here. Joe Bang's brothers, played by Jack Quaid and Brian Gleeson, are also a delight as born again Christians turned bank robbers. My favorite member of the cast though has gotta be Adam Driver, the dude plays his characters constantly subdued personality so well and he has a lot of fun serving as a contrast to the stylized hijinks his character constantly gets into. From the moment he hilariously complimented the breakfast cooking skills of Tatum's character, I was enamored with Driver and his performance.

With a cast full of great performances like that working with such a strong script and a commendable director, it's no wonder Logan Lucky turns out to be such a thoroughly fun delight. We've had so many dismal comedies this year, some of which have been headlined by some of my personal favorite comedians, so it's a real joy to watch something like Logan Lucky that has real thought and craft put into its scenes designed to generate yuks. A deep knowledge of Southern culture and good filmmaking techniques serve Logan Lucky incredibly well and I found myself having a total blast (one that explosive expert Joe Bang might even conjure up) with it.