Lucky
Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: September 29, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
80
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 34 Critic Reviews
Positive:
32
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
CineVueZoe MargolisSep 13, 2018
Weighed down by existential questions, Lucky carries the burden of life’s unanswered questions on his sun-lined face; it’s a fearless portrayal of someone facing the finality of their life. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleWalter AddiegoOct 4, 2017
A couple of other odd moments to savor: Lucky, seeking a crossword answer, reads a dictionary definition of “realism” that’s perfectly to the point. And listen as he plays “Red River Valley” on the harmonica. Either one is a great way to remember Harry Dean Stanton. Read full review
100
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzSep 29, 2017
It’s the humblest deep movie of recent years, a work in the same vein as American marginalia like “Stranger Than Paradise” and “Trees Lounge,” but with its own rhythm and color, its own emotional temperature, its own reasons for revealing and concealing things. Read full review
91
ConsequenceDominick Suzanne-MayerOct 11, 2017
It’s a striking debut, and the kind of outing that will invariably leave audiences wanting to see more from Lynch behind the camera in the future. But Lucky is a showcase for Stanton above all things. Read full review
91
The PlaylistKyle KohnerSep 18, 2017
Lucky is a film perfectly nuanced for Stanton but executed in its full potential by none other — it’s a sobering portrait dedicated to one of cinema’s greatest actors. Read full review
90
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzOct 5, 2017
Lucky is one of Harry Dean Stanton’s last roles, a rare leading performance, and it is a treasure. Read full review
90
TimeStephanie ZacharekSep 28, 2017
If only every actor we loved could leave us with a farewell film like this one. Read full review
90
VarietyJoe LeydonApr 16, 2017
Everything Harry Dean Stanton has done in his career, and his life, has brought him to his moment of triumph in “Lucky,” an unassumingly wonderful little film about nothing in particular and everything that’s important Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrOct 4, 2017
The film is valuable for gently insisting on both the indignities and the dignity of old age, and it’s invaluable as a keepsake of a most individual screen presence. It is, simply, a lovely time at the movies. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversSep 28, 2017
No one who cares about movies and those rare actors who can elevate them into something unforgettable would dream of missing this scrappy, loving tribute to a virtuoso. Lucky may not believe in God. But what kind of fool doesn't believe in Harry Dean Stanton? Read full review
85
UproxxKeith PhippsDec 4, 2017
It’s a wistful, unabashedly minor swan song that fittingly casts Stanton as a man recognizing he’s much closer to the end of his life than the beginning — and wondering what it all means. Read full review
83
The Film StageChelsey GrassoSep 29, 2017
As if taken from Stanton’s own mantra, Lucky is a powerful reminder that life really does amount to nothing (and still, somehow, everything). Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloSep 26, 2017
It’s a remarkable gift to fans and cinephiles that Lucky serves as a first-rate showcase for its star as well as an ideal swan song. The man couldn’t have gone out any better. Read full review
83
IndieWireDavid EhrlichApr 16, 2017
Lynch’s directorial debut is a wisp of a movie, blowing across the screen like a tumbleweed, but it’s also the rare portrait of mortality that’s both fun and full of life. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Simran HansSep 18, 2018
The film is a goldmine of small but perfectly formed parts. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawSep 13, 2018
A sad, sweet movie. Read full review
80
EmpireWill LawrenceSep 10, 2018
Lucky is a profound, wry, slip of a movie carried by Stanton’s moving performance. It is a fitting curtain call; one of America’s great character actors might just have saved his best for last. Read full review
80
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlOct 5, 2017
Lynch has crafted an almost proudly minor work, a hangout movie whose reason for being is Stanton’s presence. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfSep 29, 2017
Actor turned director John Carroll Lynch gets out of the way of his star and lets him cast his spell one final time. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeSep 28, 2017
It feels like a gift from one outstanding character actor to another, but never one that indulges the thesp at the expense of the film. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangSep 28, 2017
The better one knows Stanton’s life and his movies, the more the long silences and gently meandering rhythms of Lucky resonate. Read full review
80
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisSep 28, 2017
The accumulation of spot-on performances and long-familiar faces, small-town routines and dusty-worn locations, finally coalesces into a picture that’s greater than the sum of its oft-clichéd parts. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerOct 5, 2017
Making his directorial debut is actor John Carroll Lynch (no relation to David Lynch). This first-timer quirks things up occasionally with surreal scenes of a nightmare and an on-the-nose allegory (Lucky walking toward an exit sign and standing at an abyss). Read full review
75
Washington PostStephanie MerryOct 5, 2017
What starts out trivial gradually turns into a drama about big ideas: mortality and the meaning of life; the value of relationships and the vulnerability they require. Read full review
75
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonOct 5, 2017
Lucky, written as a tribute to Harry Dean Stanton, ends up being a fitting cinematic eulogy to the late actor, who died last month. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsOct 5, 2017
Director John Carroll Lynch’s quietly assured directorial feature debut works from a simple, homey script by Logan Sparks and Drago Sumonja, and Lucky feels like the work of Stanton’s friends, which it is. Read full review
75
ObserverRex ReedOct 3, 2017
The movie is so carefully observed and quietly calibrated as the old man moves from one scene to the next, as unobtrusive as a lap dissolve, that you can’t tell Harry from Lucky, or vice versa, and it doesn’t take long before you stop trying. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatySep 28, 2017
Directed by another great character actor, John Carroll Lynch (Zodiac, American Horror Story), Lucky is an elegiac and ultimately affirming meditation on mortality, regret, and smiling through hardship. You couldn’t ask for a more poignant swan song from a more singular artist. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreSep 23, 2017
It’s a tour de force for Stanton, purposefully plodding forward, a sagebrush philosopher giving his valedictory performance, a lovely curtain call that bookends with his other famous shot at leading man — “Paris, Texas.” Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonSep 28, 2017
A lot of Lucky is philosophical mischief, some of it is tediously ruminative, and some moments achieve a loveliness that belies the film’s craggy desert terrain, the earthiness of its characters and even the landscape of Mr. Stanton’s body. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesOct 11, 2017
You feel Lucky’s frustration and gloom, how they burden him, without Stanton opening his mouth. But thank goodness he does, otherwise we wouldn’t get to hear him croon the lover’s lament “Volver, Volver” with a backing mariachi band. The moment is sublime – gawdam, Harry could really sell a song – and piercingly poignant. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineChuck BowenSep 24, 2017
John Carroll Lynch's Lucky is an impeccably acted yet sentimental film that’s bashful about said sentimentality. Read full review
60
TheWrapInkoo KangSep 27, 2017
Borrowing a few biographical details from Stanton’s life, the virtually plotless drama exudes admiration for its nonagenarian muse, but it’s built so sparely that it doesn’t have much to offer anyone who doesn’t already share its reverence for the “Paris, Texas” actor. Read full review
60
The New YorkerRichard BrodySep 25, 2017
The late Harry Dean Stanton, in one of his last roles, infuses the slightest gesture and inflection with the weight of grave experience, but this maudlin drama mainly renders his grit and wisdom wholesome and cute. Read full review
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