Indie Focus: Dreams and schemes with ‘Logan Lucky,’ ‘Lemon,’ ‘Gook’ and ‘Patti Cakes’

Hello! I’m Mark Olsen, and welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.

Fall movie season is imminent, with a whole new crop of movies, and the decks are being cleared of any lingering releases that need to get out into the world. So this is yet another week with more movies coming out than anyone can possibly see, process or know what to do with.

Michael Almereyda has long been a maker of thoughtful, creative films that are always surprising and worth checking out. His latest, “Marjorie Prime,” is a haunting drama with an impressive cast including Jon Hamm, Lois Smith and Geena Davis.

French filmmaker Rebecca Zlotowski, on the other hand, still feels like a relative newcomer but has become someone very much worth remembering. Her latest film, the between-the-wars drama “Planetarium,” stars Natalie Portman and Lily-Rose Depp.

We hope to have information on more upcoming screening events soon. To find out more and for updates on future events, go to events.latimes.com.

‘Logan Lucky’

Steven Soderbergh is simply a gift to moviemaking and film culture. His irascible spirit and creative curiosity make him personally quotable and provocative while his work always feels vital and fresh. After a break from features he is back with the new heist comedy, “Logan Lucky,” which deftly comes on like a goof and then lingers with a more lasting impression. Starring Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Daniel Craig and Riley Keough, plus a supporting cast of many more familiar faces, the movie is about two brothers who want to rob the concession cash from a NASCAR race.

Reviewing for The Times, Kenneth Turan called it a “slick, smart, impeccably executed” film that could be summed up as “a highbrow heist movie involving some lowbrow folks.”

The Times’ Ryan Faughnder looked at the unusual financing and release plan for the film. The film is being released in more than 3,000 domestic theaters without the help of a traditional studio. “The unconventional strategy is a bold experiment to shake up the system [Soderbergh] has railed against for years.”

Also for The Times, Jeffrey Fleishman used “Lucky Logan” as a jumping off point for looking back at depictions of the modern South in cinema. (That this provided an excuse to put a “Smokey and the Bandit” picture of Burt Reynolds on the cover of last week’s Sunday Calendar was a real bonus.)

For the New York Times, A.O. Scott picked up on a similar vibe when he noted of Soderbergh, “a student of movie traditions high and low, he draws his inspiration here less from the gritty, downbeat realism of ’70s New Hollywood than from that decade’s good-time populist genre hybrids. If the ‘Oceans’ series represented his updating of Kennedy-era Rat Pack swagger, ‘Logan Lucky’ revives the irreverent, hell-raising outlaw vibe of ‘Smokey and the Bandit.’”

Soderbergh did a number of interviews for the film, gleefully playing coy with reporters over the identity of “Lucky’s” unknown screenwriter Rebecca Blunt and whether that’s a pseudonym and if so for whom.

Janicza Bravo, director, and Brett Gelman, star, with their film “Lemon.” A couple in real-life, they wrote the film together.

(Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

‘Lemon’

Another of my personal favorite films from Sundance this past year was “Lemon,” the feature debut from filmmaker Janicza Bravo. The movie stars Brett Gelman as a man struggling to get out of his own way, as his life and career seem to have reached an impasse. The movie is confusing at first but has an emotional resonance that remains long after it’s over. The cast also includes Nia Long, Judy Greer and many, many others.

Reviewing the movie for The Times, Katie Walsh said, “Bravo masterfully utilizes camera movement, blocking and smash cuts to create a tempo that both lulls and jolts,” going on to add that the movie finds “a transcendent absurdity in the mundane that’s awkwardly enchanting.”

I spoke to Bravo and Gelman about their collaboration on the film. As Bravo said, “We wanted to make a movie that was a comment on privilege and mediocrity and fragility… Failure was what we were most interested in.”

Reviewing for Vulture, Emily Yoshida noted, “Bravo has become both a keen observer of the absurdities of American racial divides and an unlikely voice of broken white masculinity. Her debut feature is abundant proof that she is capable of turning garden-variety awkwardness into baroque exercises in squirm.”

‘Gook’

The second feature directed by Justin Chon, the provocatively titled “Gook” is a look at the 1992 riots in Los Angeles from the perspective of the Korean American community. The story is based on the experiences of Chon’s own family as store owners at that time.

Reviewing the film for The Times, Sheri Linden said that the film “might not achieve everything it aims for, but it’s the work of someone reaching high. Viewing a pivotal event through a personal lens, Chon brings the futility of bigotry into vivid, aching focus.”

The Times’ Jen Yamato interviewed Chon about the film’s title and other issues it brings up. “My hope is for a film like this to spark conversation. Let’s talk about it. There are so many stories that still haven’t come out. There are so many stories that should be told. This was my attempt.”

Reviewing for Buzzfeed, Alison Willmore addressed the near constant comparisons to Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing” when she wrote, “‘Gook’ is a jagged first film, with slack stretches, goofy interludes, and the occasional conversation in which characters are surprised to learn new information it seems impossible they wouldn’t know already. But its pain and frustration are genuine and raw, and drive the portrayal of a conflicted Asian-American experience that has nothing to do with model minority mythology or an assumption of upward mobility, and everything to do with how Asian-Americans are aligned with other people of color. ‘Gook’ may not come close to the electric greatness of Lee’s 1989 film but, as a gesture in its direction, it’s alive with biting promise.”

‘Patti Cakes’

The debut feature from writer-director Geremy Jasper, “Patti Cakes” is a plucky, spirited story about a young girl in New Jersey who wants to make it as a rapper. Starring Danielle Macdonald in a breakout performance along with Bridget Everett, Cathy Moriarty, Siddharth Dhananjay and Mamoudou Athie, this is a fun underdog tale.

Reviewing the film for The Times, Justin Chang singled out Macdonald’s performance, while also adding, “‘Patti Cakes’ is both eager to stand out from the pack and honest enough to acknowledge its place within a long tradition of indie uplift. The movie is a canny mixture of flash and grit, an unabashedly contrived Cinderella story in Dirty Jersey drag.”

I spoke to Jasper, Macdonald and Everett. Jasper described Macdonald’s main character as “Mae West meets Biggie Smalls with the heart of Bruce Springsteen.” Macdonald said she initially didn’t think she was right for the part when she said, “When I first read the script I was like, ‘Me? Noooo.’ But I also wanted to see what happens. And as I kept reading I felt I was so not right for this but loved it.”

And Tre’vell Anderson spoke with Moriarty, who boiled down the movie’s message to “That if you’ve got a dream, it’s up to you to make it come true.”

Email me if you have questions, comments or suggestions, and follow me on Twitter@IndieFocus

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