In his final leading role, the great Harry Dean Stanton (1926-2017) shines as a cranky 90-year-old curmudgeon staring down mortality and his past. Living alone in a small New Mexican town, Lucky spends his days watching game shows, doing crosswords and visiting the local diner and bar with his friends. What follows is an elegiac, sensitive – and also deadpan funny – character study about growing old.
Actor John Carroll Lynch’s debut directorial feature is Stanton’s show from beginning to end, but also features an impressive supporting cast of Tom Skerritt, Ron Livingston, Ed Begley Jr and David Lynch as a bar buddy with a pet tortoise, of course. Touching and powerful as a silent thunder, Lucky is a fitting tribute to Stanton’s brilliant career that spanned over six decades.
