Kids these days may never understand the decades-old tradition of cozying up with your family and tuning into any number of game shows on your local cable channels. Sure, Wheel of Fortune is still cooking with host Ryan Seacrest, while Ken Jennings and Mayim Bialik took the hosting reins of Jeopardy. But millennials may have been the last generational pit stop for that lived-in notion of gathering around your ridiculously heavy 4x3 television and shouting the answers to certain trivia questions before the televised contestants can blurt them out first. If you missed the boat, a new true-story drama from co-writer/director Samir Oliveros may help fill the lost void: the retro-styled The Luckiest Man in America, starring a never-better Paul Walter Hauser (Black Bird, Cruella).
Perhaps the filmmaker took a page out of similarly styled efforts like HBO's Winning Time, but that's not to discredit the overall feel and appeal of this small-scale stunner, based on a wild real-life day that shocked a certain TV studio back in the 1980s. The Luckiest Man in America simultaneously remains sleek, richly saturated, and stylish all the way through, despite the obvious visual nods to archaic media, and it's bolstered by a stellar cast that puts us right in the action of the year 1984.
[Don't] Press Your Luck
Hauser plays Ted, an apparent everyman who has made it all the way from Ohio to Los Angeles to audition for the coveted game show Press Your Luck, then hosted by Peter Tomarken (played by the reliably superb Walton Goggins). He wins over the show's executive, Bill Carruthers (David Strathairn), despite the show's casting producer, Chuck (a deadpan-riotous Shamier Anderson), not exactly soaking up Ted's 'aw, shucks' approach.
It also doesn't help that "Ted" is actually an impostor, and the show's team soon realizes he's really named Michael Larson, still an Ohioan who faked his way onto the audition stage just to get their attention. But Bill cannot resist the everyman look of Michael, and before you know, the self-proclaimed ice-cream truck driver is dolled up and joining the other contestants for a Press Your Luck taping the very next day. But the "Ted" impostor ploy foreshadows more shenanigans to come...
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Game show fanatics of a certain era may already know the saga that ensued on that fateful day — and just one glance at this sort of project can tip off even the average film enthusiast that this isn't an awe-inspiring Slumdog Millionaire-type tale of an everyman winning well-deserved bucks. The game show's A-block proceeds like usual, with Larson befriending one fellow contestant (Brian Geraghty, a go-to for the throwback look) and eeking out another (Patti Harrison, master of eye-rolling) by the time the first commercial break hits, and that's when things start to run amok.
Sharp-witted production assistant Sylvia (Maisie Williams) is already thrown off by Michael's insistence on breaking the show's "standards and practices" to make a shady phone call before the B-block kicks off. And when it does, boy do the folks behind the scenes have their day cut out for them. Once it's Michael's turn to spin the board and "press" at the right moment, hoping it lands on a high-value selection, it seems he cannot be stopped. But wait, doesn't the spin board bounce around at random? Once Bill and his producing crew can't exactly fathom why Michael can't stop winning the big bucks, Bill's higher-up colleagues have to step in and help crack the case. It's a wild ride whose thrills we won't further spoil here.
Paul Walter Hauser & Co. Make a Splash
You might just feel the momentum of this single-day saga by just reading the words here. And that aforementioned retro edge Oliveros achieves with his little comedy-drama is bolstered by a thumping musical score that's uniquely thrilling and just plain cool. Throw in some other fun familiar faces from past TV shows and films you've all enjoyed over the years, including a shockingly sublime cameo from the one and only Johnny Knoxville (yes, him), and you've got a downright enjoyable little slice of game-show life that cleverly dismantles the artifice of 'luck' and shiny Hollywood fakery.
It's too bad the latter half of the film loses a bit of steam once all of Michael's tricks are sorted and a sort of chaos ensues across the entire property. Hauser mostly makes up for it by continuing his hot streak of scene-stealing roles, with The Luckiest Man in America proving he can lead a feature film and not always get stuck in those comic-relief supporting roles (as delicious as they always are, of course). From IFC Films, The Luckiest Man in America is said to be released sometime in 2025 following a recent festival run, including AFI Fest 2024 in October. Watch this space for more information.
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