THE LUCKIEST MAN IN AMERICA Review: Winning Against the Whammies

Lotteries, casinos, game shows: all forms of gambling that seem to be unofficial taxes on the poor. Not that the rich don't go to casinos, of course, and perhaps they might occasionally buy a lottery ticket. But this trifecta seems particularly aimed at those who want to 'get rich quick': the idea that with a stroke of luck, and some smarts, you too can become part of the 1%. And with game shows, add in that proverbial 15 minutes of fame, and it's like a bad drug.

The kicker being, your chances of actually winning a fortune in any of these are nearly impossible. NEARLY. And it's that last point that makes people keep trying. The Luckiest Man in America, directed by Samir Oliveros and co-written by Oliveros and Maggie Briggs (Joyland), it tells a strange and true story of one man's attempt to beat the odds, both in a game and in life.

Michael Larson (Paul Walter Hauser) is what you might call something of a middle American working class loser. Not able to hold on to much in the way of employment (his main source of income, and possibly his living space, is an ice cream truck), he somehow finds his way to Los Angeles to audition for the popular game show "Press Your Luck". Those old enough might recall this particular show, on which a few 'obligatory' trivia questions are asked, but mainly contestants had to press a big button in the hopes that the flashing light would stop on a square that would grant them prize money. But watch out for the whammies - just one, and you lost any money won thus far.

So it seems to be a game based almost entirely on luck; the kind of luck that television studios, casinos, governments with lotteries rely on; maybe some people might win a nice amount of money, but never enough to break the bank, and always earning those that run the game more in advertising dollars etc. Michael earns the attention of the show's co-creator Bill (David Strathairn), who likes this 'middle American everyman' he thinks Michael represents; but after some initial fumbling, Michael starts to win ... and win ... and win. Is this just sheer amazing luck? Or is Michael cheating the system?

One character calls Press Your Luck 'the most Vegas game in America' - is this because of the high risk factor? The sheer amount of luck needed to win? The bright lights that are disorient? The fast pace that gives a player little time to think or be calm? All of the above, likely. Oliveros and his team recreate this show not only in the accuracy of the production and costume designs, but the sense of how overwhelming this would be; an odd combination of near mind-numbing boredom just waiting to see if you'll be picked, then having those (in the end, not many) minutes of taping in which you are thrust into the literal spotlight, barely able to comprehend what is happening.

As Bill, his casting director Chuck (Shamier Anderson), and others in the control room realize that Michael has figured out the secret — that there is, in fact, a pattern to the squares and all you have to do is memorize it to win — they have to accept that this is not, in fact, cheating. They're angry that he figured out how to work around their tricks. So thus they want to break him psychologically. For someone as fragile as Michael, who is not adept with social graces, finds it hard to function in a 'normal' way, it's not hard to figure out his weaknesses. But what makes him susceptible to this, is also the reason he's winning.

Hauser was born to play this role, and uses the camera to showcase all of Michael's strange quirks and desperate humanity, a man finding an unusual, though not unsuccessful (at least temporarily) way to heal his life. Those occupying the backroom: the executives, the workers, the lawyers, they all seem caught in this bizarro existence and have to find (not unlike Michael) a way to win at this extensive game, especially when they only have so much power, and a single press of the button could give them a proverbial fortune or cost them everything.

Rather than take the more obvious comedy route, Oliveros and Briggs have imbued The Luckiest Man in America with the oddity such a story deserves, the surreality of how a person just wins money playing in this very bizarre and nonsensical manner, the brief celebrity it brings, and how all those who occupy this television/gambling world have to suspend their own disbelief and morality in order to survive it.

The Luckiest Man in America releases in the USA and Canada on Friday, April 4th.