Movie Review: ‘The Luckiest Man in America’ is a Hidden Gem

Director: Samir Oliveros
Writer: Maggie Briggs, Samir Oliveros
Stars: Paul Walter Hauser, Shamier Anderson, David Strathairn

Synopsis: May 1984. An unemployed ice cream truck driver steps onto the game show Press Your Luck harboring a secret: the key to endless money. But his winning streak is threatened when the bewildered executives uncover his real motivations.

The Luckiest Man in America includes a line about game shows being a version of the American Dream. It’s true that, in America, your intelligence, ambition, or abilities are not enough to ensure success. Success here is often about luck, but every system designed by humans has a flaw that can be exploited. Games of chance are just a math problem to be solved. 

The Luckiest Man in America begins as a mystery to be solved. Unless you’ve read the real life account or seen the episodes of the game show “Press Your Luck” that the film is based on, Michael Larson (Paul Walter Hauser) is an enigma. He acts strange, he has a unique style all his own, and he’s cagey about every detail of his life. As the layers are peeled back, we see his motivation for pressing his luck more and more.

Writers Maggie Briggs and Samir Oliveros have crafted a script that works like a pyramid. We start at the broad base and work our way up as the details get finer. Not only are we learning about Michael, but we see an intriguing arc between two behind-the-scenes characters. At the beginning, Bill (David Strathairn) and Chuck (Shamier Anderson) have a typical give-and-take as boss and employee, but when Bill senses his lost grip on the show may mean his head on the chopping block, he throws Chuck under the bus. It’s a subplot that keeps the story interesting and moving forward when the main plot gets a little maudlin.

For the most part, The Luckiest Man in America stays on course. If there are slow parts it’s because of Michael’s complicated backstory. We don’t get concrete answers, but what we do get isn’t that interesting. It seems like Michael’s story will go one way, when we learn he has a restraining order out on him because of a Ponzi scheme; but then there is a hard shift toward the truth about his family. It gets complicated and never fully serves the purpose the filmmakers want for the story. Michael works better as a truly unknowable figure.

Though, there is a fabulously dreamy scene in which we get to finally hear some truth about Michael in his own words. Director Oliveros and cinematographer Pablo Lozano set up a sequence where Michael is realizing that he’s been found out, that the secret of his luck is that it’s not luck at all. He’s paranoid and frantic. The camera follows him as he tries to chase a security guard in a cart, then approaches a man dressed as a police officer, only to see another one and then another one and realizes they’re actors waiting for an audition. When he finally ducks into a studio he realizes he went in the wrong door and he finds himself at the taping of a late night talk show. The host (Johnny Knoxville), rather than stop the taping or get rid of Michael, invites him to sit down and talk. Michael finally lets his guard down and tells a part of his story.

This scene is so surreal and a little out of touch with the rest of the film, but the way that Michael is framed and the camera pushes in, it’s very affecting. It’s like the catharsis Michael needs to just keep going, to push beyond his fears and doubts because he knows that this far into the taping the producers can’t stop him without causing a scandal. It makes you wonder if the scene was all in Michael’s head and he just wandered onto an empty set.

Paul Walter Hauser plays this scene and all his scenes with an incredible sweaty anxiousness. He’s an actor who really understands the mind of an eccentric. Though, the ones to watch are David Strathairn and Shamier Anderson. Anderson cuts an imposing figure, but he plays his irritation and investigation through quiet anger and frustration. Even when his character, Chuck, is intimidating Michael, the intimidation is far more psychological than physical and it’s a testament to Anderson’s prowess. Strathairn has a tremendous arc from confident boss, to worried director, to submissive sycophant and finally, cowardly survivor. He morphs into each with a practiced ease.

The Luckiest Man in America has its ups and downs, but is a very enjoyable film. You expect it to be funny and it is in many ways, but more than that it is a strange and eerie character study. The characters are all fascinating and the writing is very good. It’s a tiny gem of a film that one could mine out of the rest of the craft on display at their local cineplex.

Grade: B