Review of 'The Luckiest Man in America': Murify a game program

“The Luckiest Man in America” ​​is an ironic title for the story of Michael Larson, the Ohio man who managed to win more than $ 110,000 in an 1984 episode of the “Press Your Luck” Game Program. The truth is that luck had nothing to do with that: Larson, played here by Paul Walter Hauser, had memorized the five apparently random flickering patterns on the great board, successfully avoided the whatmies and took CBS for an unprecedented sum. As shown in the Samir Oliveros movie inspired by this strange moment in the history of television, the nickname of “Man Luckiest” was hurried by panic producers behind the stage, hoping to turn their expensive supervision of television gold.

Written by Oliveros and Maggie Briggs, it is this myth of “more fortunate man” elaborated corporate that is in the heart of his argument, a strong criticism of the scattered mediated falsehoods to make us believe that hitting him is rich is just a matter of having the will to be a contestant in a program of games, fame and fortune to only few turns.

Larson's story has already become a couple of documentaries from the Game Programs network, a graphic novel in Spanish and now “The Lukest Man in America”, which extrapolates some of the events of the control room and the events behind the scene of that day, inspired by the 42 minutes of the Larson TV images and using the contributions of the son of producer Bill Carruthers (played by David Strathair in the movie). The writers recognize Larson's sordid past with scams and schemes, but the film itself focuses on the events of that day, illustrating all the moving parts of television production and how this scandal emerged.

There is a palpably vintage quality for “the luckiest man in the United States”, obviously through the costumes of the 80s and hair, sets and transmission television style. The photography director Pablo Lozano uses the color and flashing lights of the SET to capture something almost surreal in the room, combining media with homemade VHS films and recreations of the show, a problem without problems by the editor Sebastian Hernández. An electronic score of John Carroll Kirby simulates the sound of the time, but becomes abstraction as history becomes something darker.

But there is also a sense of decline in the 1990s in this peculiar drama with a large cast cast. The obvious comparison is “Perhal Show”, the candidate for the best Robert Redford film about a questionnaire show of the 1950s, but “The Lukest Man in America” ​​has a more comic quality and kitsch with its feathered hairstyles and a bright retro aesthetic.

Humor comes from Star Hauser, which easily occupies the liminal space between comedy and drama. Hauser is a character man turned into a leading man so specific that only he could do what he does, not only in the person but in performance. Like Larson, marks a level of detail in gesture and physicality that says a lot about man and his mentality. Bore the words of the introduction of the program pronounced by Peter Tomo (Walton Goggins) and grabs the hand of the host significantly when they are found.

Hauser throws his head back when Larson shouts “Stop!” In each turn, not even looking at the board, its celebrations too artificial a notice to producer Chuck (Shamier Anderson), who exceeds that he is essentially “telling letters” in the “Press Your Luck” casino. Hauser gives this head of the head an ecstasy element when his Larson enters a kind of large status of dashboard, dodging the whatmies even when the producers will launch psychological obstacles in an attempt to throw it.

Oliveros surrounds Hauser with a secondary cast of talented (and underestimated) actors such as Strathairn, who lends a sensation of television gravity that eventually melts, since his Carruthers prove to be an executive without thorns that cannot bear his decision to launch the gloomy Larson and throw his colleagues under the bus. Brian Geraghty and Patti Harrison give some color to Ed and Janie, the contestants who have to be waiting and see the unprecedented Steamroll of Larson, while Goggins plays the perfect host of game games. Maisie Williams and James Wolk are the assistant of harassed production and director who try to corner Larson, who alternates between calling his wife (Haley Bennett) in a panic and their sweep record and record.

This is an American story made by an international cohort: Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín is an executive producer under his Fabula production banner, and the film is much more than an exploration of this anomalous and an anomalous character that managed to overcome the media. The approach to the panic of the control room illustrates how these corporate narratives shape the myth of the American dream, effectively deconstructing the fantasy that anyone of this was luck.

Katie Walsh is a film critique of the Tribune news service.