BEFORE: Well, before I close the book on 2021, let me get this film out of the way - I've had it programmed at least TWICE and then circumstances changed, making it not fit any more. Originally I was going to fit both this film and "Mr. North" it at the end of last year, and then plans changed, I don't recall exactly why. "Mr. North" found its way back in March 2021, but then I had to connect St. Patrick's Day and Easter, and I didn't have a slot for "Lucky", which at the time was free on YouTube, so I figured I could always get to it later. Well, welcome to later.
I also had a hunch that "Lucky" might get me out of a linking jam later on, and what do you know, here it is, serving a key purpose, getting me one step closer to my Christmas films. I'd call that a noble purpose. But now I don't have room for "Paris, Texas" - maybe someday. So Ron Livingston carries over from "The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot" and I've got to head in another direction tomorrow.
THE PLOT: The spiritual journey of a 90-year-old atheist and the quirky characters that inhabit his off-the-map desert town.
AFTER: Wow, this one's a real head-scratcher, it's very Seinfeldian in that in many ways, it's a film about nothing. Or if it is a film about SOMEthing, I must have missed it. I'm just left thinking there's no "there" there, and that's what you get when you focus on a town in the middle of nowhere, where nothing ever happens and they all like it that way. Nope, I said yesterday that I can learn something from EVERY film, just about, I have to believe that every film has something to teach me, some kind of message.
Hmm, both yesterday's film and today's had older main characters who live alone, is my Movie Year trying to tell me something? I turned 53 this year and my wife signed me up for AARP, but I think that was just to get all the discounts. I can't retire yet, I just started a new job, and I certainly don't have a ton of money saved up, so how is THAT going to work? I've got a modest 401K from a job years ago, I doubt it will last very long when the time comes, so really I'm counting on the house gaining some equity (which I only get if I sell it) or maybe the comic book collection (same problem, I'd have to sell it for it to be of value). But who knows, there may come a time in my life where I'll be in my 70's and I'll need to fill up my time, find a way to get through each day and get ready for the next one.
For both Lucky and The Man Who Killed Hitler, that means living according to a routine. Exercising, eating right, drinking milk for stronger bones and what-not. For Lucky, that also means a daily regimen of cigarettes and Bloody Marias at the bar. His doctor doesn't care much for the regimen, but he also is forced to acknowledge that if these things haven't killed Lucky yet, they're probably not going to. Guess he's just lucky, you know. Actually he got the name by being a cook in the Navy, as we find out late in the film. The cook got to just stay on the ship, and apparently that was one of the safer jobs during World War II, unless of course the whole ship went down.
Lucky doesn't have kids, not as far as he knows, anyway. And he pours out tomorrow's glass of milk today, for some reason - I couldn't quite figure this one out, why not keep the milk in the carton as long as possible? Must be a life-hack I'm not aware of. Lucky hangs out with his friends at the coffee shop in the morning and his other friends in the bar at night, and it's somehow not surprising at all to see that his closest friends is played by David Lynch, as a man who's bemoaning the loss of his pet tortoise, who escaped from his ranch somehow at a very slow pace.
Lucky does crossword puzzles. Lucky attends a store clerk's son's Mexican birthday party. Lucky regrets shooting a bird with a BB gun when he was a small boy. Lucky has a diner waitress over to watch a tape of Liberace performing in concert. Lucky tries to buy a pet but then for some reason buys a box of live crickets instead, maybe to prevent them from being fed to reptiles? Lucky wants to light up a cigarette at the bar, but is told that it's no longer allowed.
I guess this is all supposed to be philosophical somehow, Lucky delivers a rant about how we all come from nothing, and one day we'll all be nothing again, that life is essentially a zero sum game, and what are we supposed to do with that knowledge? Just smile and try to enjoy ourselves. Well, it's not exactly full enlightenment, but I guess it will have to do. Still, I'm hard-pressed to discern any meaning to all of this, but that may (or may not) be the exact point that someone was trying to make? However, it would be VERY hard to distinguish between that and the film being just a big waste of time.
I think I need a couple days off, I just feel like I'm living through the ass end of 2021's movies, and I'll try taking a little break before finishing the year. Just four films to go, but I can take some time and catch up on Marvel's "Hawkeye" show on Disney+ before I wrap things up. Spoilers are circulating around and I want to watch the show before I learn too much online.
Also starring Harry Dean Stanton (last seen in "Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice"), David Lynch (last heard in "Girlfriend's Day"), Ed Begley Jr. (last seen in "CHIPS"), Tom Skerritt (last seen in "Up in Smoke"), Barry Shabaka Henley (last seen in "Dolemite Is My Name"), James Darren, Beth Grant (last seen in "All About Steve"), Yvonne Huff Lee, Hugo Armstrong, Bertila Damas, Pam Sparks, Ana Mercedes, Sarah Cook, Amy Claire with archive footage of Liberace.
RATING: 3 out of 10 phone calls to an unseen friend
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