Hot Rumor: Is David Heyman Getting the James Bond Franchise... and Could Alfonso Cuarón Be Joining Him?

Happy Thursday, folks!

Last night, I hit up a screening of David Yarovesky’s horror thriller Locked starring Bill Skarsgard. That one is under embargo, as is Jimmy Warden’s stalker flick Borderline, which I watched later in the evening. Sandwiched in between those two films, however, was my first look at The Luckiest Man in America, which opened TIFF last year.

Directed by Samir Oliveros and written Maggie Briggs, the film examines the 1978 scandal that engulfed the CBS game show Press Your Luck when a clever contestant named Michael Larson outsmarted the system and won $110,000 dollars (the equivalent of $333,000 today) without hitting a single whammy.

From I, Tonya to Richard Jewell, Paul Walter Hauser has always excelled playing oddball characters, and his unassuming con man Larson certainly qualifies as such, but I’ll tell you who’s really good in this movie — Shamier Anderson and Haley Bennett, who pops up at the very end and makes the most of her limited screentime.

Meanwhile, Anderson’s character suffers a humiliating moment halfway through the film, and though he initially takes it in stride — it’s just more bullshit he has to deal with as a Black man trying to make it in showbiz — you see how the moment affects him, and it’s subtle but heartbreaking stuff.

Overall, The Luckiest Man in America is just an okay indie movie, but if you’re a fan of game show history, there’s just enough going under the lights here to make it worth a VOD rental. Unfortunately, it’s a little harder to recommend as a theatrical release, as the story grows a little thin and the film starts to press its own luck despite its 90-minute running time.

Still, the ensemble cast (featuring Walton Goggins, David Strathairn, and one of my favorite character actors, Damian Young) ultimately elevates the material, and Bennett helps the film stick its landing, as that final scene bumped it up a half-star for me — no small feat.

The Luckiest Man in America will hit theaters on April 4 via IFC Films.

Tonight, you’ll read the latest rumblings about Amazon’s plans for the James Bond franchise. Plus, my review of Steven Soderbergh’s spy thriller Black Bag starring Michael Fassbender, Cate Blanchett, and scene-stealer Marisa Abela, who is a star if I’ve ever seen one.

There are also items about the Leonardo DiCaprio movie that has its eye on Adrien Brody, the Netflix project that would love to land Mikey Madison, Margaret Qualley dropping out of an A24 movie, Charli XCX’s potential reunion with Greta Gerwig on Narnia, and the trailer for Guy Ritchie’s Paramount+ series MobLand starring Tom Hardy.

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