Directed By: Samir Oliveros
Written By: Samir Oliveros and Maggie Briggs
Story By: Amanda Freedman
Cinematography: Pablo Lozano
Editor: Sebastian Hernandez
Cast: Paul Walter Hauser, Walton Goggins, Maise Williams, David Straitharn, Shamier Anderson, Johnny Knoxville, Brian Geraghty, Shaunte Renne Wilson, Damien Young, Patti Harrison, Haley Bennett, Genesis Rodriguez
May 1984. An unemployed ice cream truck driver steps onto the game show Press Your Luck harboring a secret: the key to endless money. But his winning streak is threatened when the bewildered executives uncover his real motivations.
I know most of the story just from articles and watching the short documentary on the case and the character on Netflix. BIG BUCKS: THE PRESS YOUR LUCK SCANDAL. The only truth it seems to keep is the memorizing of the patterns of the game board to win.
The story that this film tells has been in development hell since 2000. When bill murray was attached to the film, before aging out and dropping interest in it.
The film of course didn’t have enough time nor the budget to tell the whole story in multiple events and days that this actually happened during hand on different shows so instead condenses it mostly all into one day and the film taking place in one studio do more to probably the production constraints
The film has a very impressive cast of actors all likable they hear they seem thrown into this production that means well, but ultimately comes across like a TV movie on the subject only with foul language allowed in.
As the film keeps going along at first you wonder is this supposed to be more of a character piece or what is his motivation truly and what it all about while the film shows the slippery politics have not only show business but also production as we see the reaction to his winning from the exact to the behind the scenes production staff to the other contestants, the host and partly the audience, and finally where the film really gets emotional at its heart is in the final 10 to 15 minutes of the film
It’s great to see Paul Walter Hauser have another leading man role as a kind of lovable misfit out there who has tons of get rich, quick schemes, and this one finally might actually pay off that he believes will help solve everything, but only seems to help rip it apart even more.
You only wish the actors had a better film or were given a better script overall or at least a slightly bigger production to be in
It’s a satisfying story, especially if you’ve never heard it before and will induce you to do your own research more into the story but other than that, it’s one of these stories that you feel should’ve been done better or been at least illustrated a little bit better. it’s none of the actor‘s fault who all rise in the occasion. It’s just that by the end it doesn’t quite feel as satisfying as it should, though by the end, it does hit an emotional level. That is unexpected.
Grade: C+
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