| The Luckiest Man in America is based on a true story that you’re likely not familiar with. There were no affecting consequences, it was just a day for big swings in opinions and personalities in front of the camera and behind the camera for the 1980s daytime game show Press Your Luck. Michael Larson (Paul Walter Hauser) is winning big money on the small-time game show, but nobody is sure if that’s a good thing, a bad thing, or a potentially fraudulent thing. | | 2024
Directed by: Samir Oliveros
Screenplay by: Maggie Briggs, Samir Oliveros
Starring: Paul Walter Hauser, David Strathairn
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The movie has a strong 1980s TV show aesthetic. A boxed-in look with a lot of yellows and browns, it feels small and cramped, which is of course on purpose. The audience doesn’t feel comfortable right away, mostly because we know Michael is lying from the beginning, and then later it aids in the frenetic feeling of the movie.
Michael introduces himself as a Tyler who has already been approved to appear on the game show. While the executive producer, Bill (David Strathairn), and casting director, Chuck (Shamier Anderson), both quickly learn he’s lying, Bill is taken with this unkempt, completely unpolished, ice cream truck driving man from Ohio, who could be the quintessential American. Chuck isn’t so sure, he thinks there is something off about him. The audience will be with Chuck at this point, there is definitely something off about Michael, and who knows where the lies start and stop.
As Michael starts racking up record-breaking amounts of money on Press Your Luck, the executives behind the screen are frantic. They’re positive he’s cheating and they have to first figure out how and then figure out how to put a stop to it. There is one problem with that, Michael isn’t cheating. Morally-dubious, sure, but not cheating, no laws are being broken… this time.
The back-story that we get bits and pieces of as Michael’s winnings keep adding up, is that he has been on the wrong side of the law at multiple points in the past. But the very interesting choice the movie makes is that Michael is almost always presented with empathy. Hey, if you have figured out how to beat a game show, do it. Of course the executives don’t all agree, but that’s where the movie remains interesting because every single executive in the back room has a different opinion on where things went wrong and how to resolve it. Or maybe the show will just let him keep winning.
Apart from Paul Walter Hauser who gives a standout performance, most viewers will probably all pick a different supporting actor to highlight. The cast is absolutely stacked (a benefit of being an independent film and getting a SAG waiver to film during the strikes) and most have an interesting angle to add to the drama going down. My favourite is Walton Goggins as game show host Peter Tomarken, who most of the time has to be on the studio audience’s side (which is also Michael’s side) but is also front-row center to the scandal unfolding but only being given tiny amounts of the information that the other executives have uncovered.
While it may not be clear from this review, this movie is a comedy. That’s how you stay sympathetic to a guy who has lied and stolen and is scamming the system. Some people think it ends abruptly, compared to other true story movies, it does, but it does tell the complete story.
The Luckiest Man in America doesn’t yet have a distribution deal. With this cast, it will get one, but it may have a hard time finding an audience. It’s an odd little story that is sure to be divisive. I however was thoroughly taken by it.
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