Lucky Bastard

Viewers and critics have a hate-on for this film that baffles me. "Lucky Bastard" is a solid, well-told story about a man who, professionally and personally, is simply stuck. Given the opportunity to escape the pressures to move forward to which his business partner and his boyfriend each subject him, Rusty leaps at it when it appears in the form of Denny, a deeply damaged hustler and meth addict. The appeal of trying to fix Denny parallels Rusty's enjoyment of restoring old houses, Denny's emotional damage being comparable to the damage that perfectionist Rusty deals with in his work.

The principal actors handle the material well, although Timothy Cole as Rusty's business partner is the weakest member of the cast. The film is far more introspective than writer/director Everett Lewis's previous work. Lewis drew upon his own experience being in a relationship with a meth addict and much of the dialog, notably Denny's monologue on how he became involved with drugs and sex work, came from life. The result is a film that feels intimate and real. My one complaint is that it feels like there is a scene missing between Denny's final angry outburst and Rusty's sending him packing. Rusty's emotional transition feels abrupt and unmotivated. That one flaw should not dissuade anyone from seeing the film.

Yeah, that's not a sterling summation, but it is apt. I always go for gay themed movies, just to see what they might add to the genre. Lucky Bastard is different enough to earn a couple stars in that it deals with situations not well covered in other gay cinema. It seems that the directing was fairly loose, which I happen to like, and the main cast performed well enough, i.e., they were believable in their actions and dialogue.

Other reviewers seem to dislike the actors, but I think they were well chosen. The weakest lead was surely actor who played Garrett, the business partner, but his role is somewhat peripheral like a touchstone the main character goes to when he needs a small reset. The boyfriend, Daniel, is kind of forgettable, but the role is small. The meth-addicted hustler, Denny, almost nailed the role, but it's probably a problem with costume and make-up - every meth head I have been around has seriously messed up skin, teeth, and hollow eyes. Which leaves the main character, Rusty.

There were a few scenes where I wanted to punch him in the throat because he was making stupid decisions, but isn't that why we watch movies? To invest ourselves in character portrayals? The actor is adorable and I did not have to stretch credulity to follow him on his journey of self discovery and growth.

Is this a cinematic masterpiece? Hardly. But there is a good return on entertainment investment for this relatively short drama.

Somewhat recommend, especially for people who are looking for a gay movie off the beaten path.

I selected this movie due to the nudity and smoking listed in the warning. I like edgy movies, but these movies tend to not be very good and it is good to find a gem in the rough, which this one is. The main characters were well cast, even the antagonist. I've never worked in porn, but I would think this is how the characters act offscreen. The character of Mike (McManus) is what I would expect a porn director to be, friendly then mean then back to friendly, whatever it takes to get the project done. Then Ashley (Rue) is what I would think a porn actress would be, having the ability to block out what she just did, "It's just a job to pay the rent." knowing that she will deal with it later in life. Dave G./Ernest (Paulson) is an awesome creeper. Mike ignores all the red flags to get the job done. Ashely eventually acquiesces to get the job done. Paulson hides his psychosis to get the job done. The rest of the car does a good job of supporting the main characters. All this was tied together by the director keeping the energy high and the suspense ongoing. At least there were no scantily clad women backing into a dark room backwards. All this suspense was done in broad daylight in one day. I truly enjoy how the movie ended. No spoilers. Something I found interesting was that Ashely Saint was a producer. That is a unique name and the name of one of the main characters. It made me think that this may have been made from an actual event, but no. Nothing that I could find. It may have just been someone deciding to give the real Ashely some notoriety. Maybe. All-in-all, an enjoyable offbeat edgy movie.

After watching about half the film I kept thinking that an educated, intelligent, successful person would never so easily hook up with some guy he had a chance encounter with at a liquor store, let alone almost immediately claim that he "really loved" the guy. And, if that wasn't sufficiently incredible, he certainly wouldn't stick around once the guy started hitting on him for money for drugs, followed by making a scene at a bar proclaiming that "you don't own me" and "I'll do whatever I want."

I even checked in this forum at that point to see what others thought about the plausibility of all this … and initially agreed 100% with a reviewer who wrote several lines beginning with "There is absolutely no way any sensible person would …" and who concluded "The implausibilities in the story are the film's major weakness." That's exactly what I felt too.

But I gave it some further thought and watched the rest of the movie … with a bit of fast-forwarding. There are a lot of people, intelligent or not, educated or not, sophisticated or not, who sometimes do totally irrational things when driven by infatuation or, more bluntly, by lust. It may imply a degree of vulnerability but people who seem to have their act together can still be vulnerable as well.

I doubt at this point in life I'd be so easily drawn into doing something so stupid, but then opportunities to be irrational with someone as sexy as the character Denny don't come my way … for reasons other than my sensible, world-weary personality.

Real people do incredibly stupid things when it comes to sex. If they're lucky, they're not too badly hurt by the experiences and they do return to making sensible choices … as was the case with Rusty.

Quite often people in movies do things that we would never do and act in a way that seems irrational to us, but most of us know real people who do such things. The news often reports on famous, supposedly well-respected, sensible people who do incredibly reckless things because of sex. We may even look back on our own lives and recall some amazingly implausible things we did … because of sex.

Nonetheless, even after accepting Rusty's illogical behavior as realistic for some emotionally fragile people and also noting that the two main characters in the movie are definitely easy on the eyes, it is still by no means a great movie. There was never any sense of Rusty being driven by his infatuation for Denny, we were just told that he really loved him and had to believe that was what was making him act foolishly. Neither the story nor the acting helped to make us understand why Rusty did what he did.

My final take on the title is that a Lucky Bastard is one never to have met and become entangled with a crack addict. The manipulation of educated, successful Rusty, which comes by every single word out of Denny the drug addict's mouth, seems to be remembered verbatim. Rusty's susceptibility comes in part from his being a decent guy who does not expect others to lie. Al Green sang about a kind-hearted woman who revives a poor half-frozen snake. When the snake bites her in return, he brushes aside her betrayal by reminding her that she knew what he was when she warmed him to her bosom.

Life's too short to watch bad movies, and this is one I found myself compelled to watch completely. The actors are all capable and believable in the many layers they must weave. The production values won't make you cringe, and the script manages to show a lot in a brief time, without wasting any. The music is unusually good, which is why I'm on line to find out more about it (found it as Amazon mp3 downloads). You don't need to suspend disbelief to enjoy this film. Instead, let this film lead you out of whatever naiveté insists we'd never misstep in the path of an addicted conman without conscience. Here's where you can glimpse how fallible such a belief makes you.