The Big Picture

Your Lucky Day showcases the late Angus Cloud’s talent and ability to command a scene, making it a bittersweet gift for fans of his work. The film’s premise revolves around a deadly heist that explores themes of economic insecurity and the desperate measures people take for stability. Jessica Garza’s performance in the finale steals the show, bringing the film to its most entertaining and well-constructed stretch before reality comes crashing back in.

There is no way to write about the thriller Your Lucky Day without paying respect to the late, great Angus Cloud. Not only was he one of the best parts of the series Euphoria, but he felt like he was just getting started in terms of what he could do as an actor. Each and every single moment he got on screen felt like he was surprising you with something new just as he remained a consistent grounding force. There was a presence he had just as there was a vulnerability. He was one of those performers who could draw you into a scene merely from the way he inhabited the little moments and lines of dialogue with a simple passion that felt like it was limitless in where it could go. This was tragically cut short when Cloud passed away this past July at the age of only 25. It remains a loss that is still completely and utterly shattering all these months later as one of his final projects now gets its wide release.

Your Lucky Day After a dispute over a winning lottery ticket turns into a deadly hostage situation, the witnesses must decide exactly how far they’ll go—and how much blood they’re willing to spill—for a cut of the $156 million. Director Dan Brown Cast Angus Cloud, Jessica Garza, Elliot Knight, Sterling Beaumon, Mousa Hussein Kraish, Spencer Garrett, Jason O’Mara Runtime 89 Minutes Main Genre Action Genres Horror Studio Well Go USA
First premiering back at this year’s Fantastic Fest, writer-director Daniel Brown’s Your Lucky Day is a scrappy showcase for Cloud that is often about letting him take center stage. Much of this has to do with it all being set at a single location where he is given the room to work, but it also stems from a willingness to let certain moments linger. Where other thrillers might attempt to zip along to the next moment of action, this one spends a good amount of its opening building up the details of its small corner of the world as well as the characters that inhabit it. It is very much an ensemble film, yet it also serves as one of the final demonstrations of how Cloud could command a scene like no one else. That alone makes Your Lucky Day a bittersweet gift, but the sharp film also has quite a lot else going on as well.

What Is ‘Your Lucky Day’ About?

This all begins on a seemingly ordinary Christmas Eve that will soon forever alter the life of the young Sterling (Cloud) who just can’t seem to catch a break. Following a drug deal gone awry where he was left empty-handed, he wanders into a convenience store where he overhears a wealthy man get the winning lottery ticket that is worth $156 million. It is money he doesn’t really need and Sterling does desperately so he decides to rob him at gunpoint for it. Unbeknownst to him, there is a cop in the bathroom who comes out and shoots at them, killing the man before Sterling shoots him. Now suddenly with a couple of bodies to deal with, Sterling attempts to cut a deal with the rest of the people at the convenience store to cover up what happened and split the money together. This includes the store’s owner Amir (Mousa Hussein Kraish) as well as the couple of Abraham (Elliot Knight) and Ana (Jessica Garza), the latter of whom is pregnant. All could use this money and thus eventually come to an agreement to find a way to get rid of the bodies before heading their separate ways with the life-changing money. Of course, this is an undertaking that’s far easier said than done.

An expansion on Brown’s short film of the same name, what begins as a deadly heist soon settles into something a bit more reflective even as it is still a thriller through and through. It almost plays like a parable of economic insecurity and the desperation that will push otherwise ordinary people to do whatever it takes to find something approaching stability. That it is then wrapped in a genre film makes it work all the better as it injects the story with a real sense of stakes about more than just this single moment in time. Though Sterling is attempting to steal money from someone, has it not already been that everyone else is stealing from him as well? Is that not how the world runs in so many instances?

The way Cloud delivers lines laying this out is blunt yet effective as we hear a pain in his voice that shows how the hard world his character has had to navigate has stripped away any willingness to sugarcoat such realities. A small detail about a loss he has experienced passes quickly yet ends up being revealing about why he is doing this. This ensures the group’s attempts to face the crisis at hand remain appropriately tense as the escalations are grounded in the lives that all of these characters are willing to risk for that money. One particularly striking image comes when things spiral even further out of control and the silence of a sudden death is one we are left to sit with for several seconds. With the broken glass entryway still with a hanging holiday decoration, it marks the moment where a sense of grim order begins to reassert itself that is just as violent and bloody as all that preceded it. In this moment, a different character steps into the forefront in quite spectacular fashion.

Jessica Garza Steals the Show in the Finale of ‘Your Lucky Day’
Image via Well Go USA

Without going too much into detail about where this all ends up, the film takes a turn in the conclusion that sees Garza’s Ana become the driving force. It is like she gets her own version of Die Hard where she must hold off unexpected intruders and she more than makes it shine. There are many moments where tiny breadcrumbs are left throughout the film that end up paying off, but it is Garza’s performance that holds it together. Seeing her put them all together is where the film is at its most entertaining and well-constructed before the excitement of seeing her in action is turned on its head once more when reality comes crashing back in. When all the bodies have been piled up, the cost of even just survival in this scenario becomes painfully apparent. To make it by the rules of how everything runs requires being as cutthroat as the rest of the world is and even that may not be enough. While this film could easily be dismissed as just another thriller, is such a state of being really so hard to believe?

Rating: B

Your Lucky Day is now showing in limited theaters in the U.S. and is available to stream on VOD starting November 14.

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