TIFF 2024: The Luckiest Man in America
The Luckiest Man in America (2024)
Directed by Samir Oliveros
Starring Paul Walter Hauser, Walton Goggins, David Strathairn, and Maisie Williams
As seen at the film’s world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). All images courtesy of TIFF.
Paul Walter Hauser has made a career out of playing painfully unaware losers. In Samir Oliveros’s first English-language film, he portrays a painfully unaware winner, walking away with $110,237 (equivalent to one-third of a million in today’s economy).
The film dives right in as Hauser’s character, Michael Larson, pathetically attempts to bypass protocols to appear on the popular game show *Press Your Luck* (1983-1986). Although caught in the act, his pitiful charm wins over the show’s producer, Bill Carruthers, played by David Strathairn with a white-haired *Mad Men* energy. Carruthers instructs Larson to return the next day as a contestant.
The remaining 75 minutes of The Luckiest Man in America become a one-location stress factory, reminiscent of fellow TIFF premiere SATURDAY NIGHT, directed by Jason Reitman. Not surpsingly, director Samir Oliveros takes much more creative license with his characters than Reitman does, though. While everyone knows Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, John Belushi, and others, few are familiar with Michael Larson, Peter Tomarken, or what a Whammy is.
The tension in the film emanates not only from Hauser’s Michael Larson, who is clearly “up to something” as he presses his luck into the game show record books, but also from the producers and higher-ups, who debate in real-time what action to take as they watch events unfold in the control room.
Fans of Hauser’s portrayal of the painfully unaware loser Richard Jewell in the film of the same name, or his role as Shawn Eckardt in I, Tonya (2017), will find this film a must-see. Additionally, those who enjoy game show scandal films like Quiz Show (1994) or Slumdog Millionaire (2008) will be pleasantly surprised by how much drama and tension can be packed into a single location.
Recommended.