Lucky Grandma

Found this movie via Alamo's OnDemand site - Lucky Grandma has something for everyone: Light humor, mob intrigue, a lovingly shot Chinatown, and a stand-out score that yanked me in with the first blast of the brass choir.

I don't think there are enough stories featuring the 70+ crowd out there; Tsai Chin paints a very human picture of entitlement (damn the consequences) after a life of hard work. Who doesn't deserve a sack of cash for making it that far?

Grandma lives in china town, her husband has just died. So she takes a bus to the casino and loses all her money. When an opportunity comes along, she robs a gangster. But now they are coming after grandma, and the money. So she hires her own thug for protection! Now they have taken a family member . Neither side is giving up! Grandma must come up with a plan to get her grandson back and keep the money. Can it be done?? It's all done a little tongue in cheek. A couple gun fights. But grandma won't give in! Good drama with some very subtle comedy, where we root for the under-dog. It's pretty good! Even won a bunch of film fest awards! Directed by sasie sealy.

"Lucky Grandma" (2019 release; 87 min.) brings the story of Grandma. As the movie opens, we are in Chinatown, New York, and Grandma is having her fortune told. "You lucky day is coming on October 28", the fortune teller says. On that day, Grandma empties her bank account savings (all of $1,700) and heads out of town to a casino. On the return bus trip, the guy sitting next to her dies of a heart attack, and Grandma notices his bag is full of cash, mostly $100 bills. She decides to run off with it, but it isn't long before she is visited by Chinese mobsters... At this point 12 are less than 15 min. into the movie but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: this is the feature length debut of writer-director Sasie Sealy. Here she brings the story of a chain-smoking and fiercely independent ol' ladie who unexpectedly gets mixed up in Chinese mobsters fighting over money. The movie is marketed as a "comedy drama". Let me just tell you this: there is zero dram, I mean none. Yes there is some comedy, as a "grandma" gets unwillingly mixed up in the Chinese underbelly of New York, and yes, the theater audience I saw this with laughed out loud on some occasions. I must admit it didn't do much for me either way. I just never got into this film, for whatever reason. The bright spot is of course Tsai Chin, in the role of Grandma. Best known for her role in "The Joy Luck Club"

They don't come that much more un-Hollywood (quirky) than Lucky Grandma...when was the last time you watched a movie with a droll 80yr old chain-smoking woman as the main star? Is Grandma lucky? Well, challenged would be a better fit. Poor Grandma, 40 odd years working hard beside her husband only to find she's been left with virtually nothing. The best thing we can take away from this story is; Luck is an illusion you can't bank on...no matter what the fortune readers may tell you.

While there are good helpings of ironic humour and comical situations 'Grandma' at times presents with some slightly unsettling violence, occasioning death, courtesy of rivalry between a couple of local Chinese crime gangs. To find out how Grandma is drawn into these situations you'll just have to watch. Thankfully, the links with family offer an all-important and warming strength to Grandmas very edgy entrapments.

There are plenty of odd, well played Characters injecting fun throughout, along with some rather sinister types you'd be happy not to meet. An imaginative music score from Andrew Orkin adds nice touches - while the visuals provided by El Salvadorian Cinematographer, Eduardo Enrique Mayen supply professional contrasts between New York Chinatown's side streets, back alleys, and grannies' meagre apartment...where it seems there's always someone knocking on her door!

The first theatrical feature from director/writer Sasie Sealy gives us good cause to want to see her next effort.

Easily one of the most uneven films of the year. The first half is a quite funny black comedy but in the second half it just kind of drops that and becomes a far more straight crime drama. The joke is I guess there's this grumpy old lady at the centre of it but that in and of itself isn't that funny. It actually becomes a bit sad and not in a good emotional way, sad in a 'I don't want to see gangsters attempt to strangle and shoot an old lady' kind of way. But at the same time she's not a particularly good person or sympathetic character so I don't really care that much either. What a strange experience this film is.