Times change and Diamond families could very well be the last generation who knows how it felt like to watch game shows as a family. For the record, it wasn’t too long ago that families would arrange their schedules to go watch shows like Family Feud, Wheel of Fortune, and Jeopardy with their families. With Ryan Seacrest still hosting Wheel of Fortune and Ken Jennings and Mayim Bialik doing the same as the hosts of Jeopardy, it looks like hundreds will binge-watch because of nostalgia. In actuality, millennials have been the last big generation of those who enjoyed gaming as a community primarily because they witnessed the good days of gathering around the 4×3 televisions and actively participating in the show by answering trivia questions on the television screen when the contestants were yet to do so. If last nights episode of Family Guy was too outrageous, don’t worry as there is a new historical drama written and directed by Samir Oliveros that should appeal to most people: Paul Walter Hauser in The Luckiest Man in America.
It may well be that the director drew inspiration from thematically similar works such as HBO’s Winning Time; but that should not take anything away from the general mood and the mesmeric quality of this low-budget masterpiece which, in fact, is based on a bizarre true story that startled one American TV network in the ‘80s. The Luckiest Man in America, however, is consistently leant-production sleek, plush saturation stylish from start to finish with disrespects towards the time period aesthetics, and is complemented with a nice cast that brings us to the events of the year 1984.
Hauser portrays Ted, an average American who has traveled from Ohio to Los Angeles for an audition on game show Press Your Luck which was at that time hosted by Peter Tomarken (Walton Goggins, always brilliant). Even though show’s casting producer Chuck (a comically deadpan Shamier Anderson) is not very impressed with Ted’s ‘aw, shucks’ attempt at charm, Ted nevertheless manages to win Bill Carruthers (David Strathairn), an executive of the show.
And to make matters worse, this inhabitant of Ohio is a phony, one of the contestants is called Ted, but his name is Michael Larson, an auditioner who faked his way through the audition. However, Michael’s everyman aspect, which Bill so loves, soon has the self-professed ice cream truck driver competing on the game show’s next day tapes. Things would be different, however, if it were not for the “Ted” impostor’s prelude. More might be in store.
Anyway, game show enthusiasts of a particular age group are most likely already acquainted with the events that unfolded thereafter. Knowing just this much about this type of undertaking should alert even a novice film buff that this is hardly about an ‘overcoming the odds’ win as in Slumdog Millionaire. The usual game show A-block takes shape as always with Larson arriving at middle after meeting Brian Geraghty’s character and Kathy Harrison’s character within the first ad break where everything begins to get out of control.
The sharp-witted production assistant Sylvia (Maisie Williams) is already off kilter by Michael’s need to make a bad phone call before the B-block begins, all in notice of breaking the standards of the show. And when it’s time for the Big B block, boy do the people behind the board have a Ninety-Four Greeting’d out for them. The moment it’s Michael’s turn and he has to spin the wheel and decides the right moment to press , it looks like he has gone out of control. But wait, does the spin board not spin randomly? Convinced that Michael cannot possibly stop winning because winning is all that Michael bothers to do and especially when Bill and his producing crew cannot quite understand how the winning is happening, well it has to be his higher-ups. What a great rocking motion it has been and the cheers should remain here without us spoiling any further bursts of excitement.
Even the powers that be the words and the text, within this section will make you feel the kind of speed the momentum of the single day in the life. That retro edge we spoke of in the previous sentence is accentuated further by a constant barrage of euphoric beats that makes this little comedy-drama great. And of course, bunch of familiar people from the television shows and films that you loved watching, including an unexpectedly amazing cameo by Johnny Knoxville, and it makes for an entertaining game-show-esque ambiance that calmly critiques the concept of luck and all the superficiality of Hollywood.
It is unfortunate that the second half of the movie gets a little slower after all of Michael’s tricks have been handled and some sort of mayhem breaks out in the entire estate. Hauser almost makes up for it by still maintaining his hot streak of thievable scenes, with The Luckiest Man in America showing he doesn’t have to be contained in a supporting comic relief role every time (as great as they are). The film by IFC Films, The Luckiest Man in America, is reported to be out in 2025 having just finished a festival circuit starting with AFI Fest 2024 in October. Keep an eye on this space for more updates.
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