The first trailer for Steven Soderbergh’s Logan Lucky was released yesterday and it’s one of those automatic, Three Billboards - style I’M IN deals. You don’t even need to finish the trailer before you know whether or not this movie is for you. I knew it was for me when Daniel Craig says, “I am in-car-cer-rated.” Soderbergh hasn’t directed a film since Behind the Candelabra in 2013, and this trailer is a reminder of how much he’s been missing from the cinematic space, particularly in the sub-genre of heist movies. I’m so ready for a new Soderbergh heist-capade.
The cast is f*cking stacked, headlined by Channing Tatum and Adam Driver, playing a pair of brothers who plan to rob the Charlotte Motor Speedway. So where Ocean’s 11 was all high-class casinos and tuxedoes, Logan Lucky is the blue-collar cousin, robbing NASCAR in Dickies. (It’s too bad Chris Pratt isn’t in this—seems right up his alley.) But the real gold is Daniel Craig, bleached blonde and tatted up and doing an accent that is simultaneously perfect and over the top. These are the kinds of performances I wish Oscar wouldn’t ignore—forget suffering in the Yukon or whatever, delivering this kind of comedic performance is HARD. And it’s Daniel Craig! Daniel I’m-So-Serious-Look-At-My-Intense-Pout Craig! You will never convince me his work on this movie is any less worthy than Leonardo DiCaprio humping a bear.
