I saw LUCKY a couple days ago and it sticks with me. It is a fun ride through the under belly of New York City. The film does a great job of capturing an immigrant's struggle for the American dream without falling into the trap of boring the audience with a political lecture about immigration and race. Set in the gritty streets of the not yet gentrified outer reaches of New York City. It has a throw back quality to the gritty crime films of the 70s and 80s, with modern day pimps and prostitutes hustling the streets. The plot unwinds in a logical and honest way that leads the audience to identify with an otherwise moral man who is left with no other choice but to descend into a life of crime. The film is blessed with a great cast, great score and a very well written script. I look forward to more from this director.

****SPOILER AHEAD******The film opens up with a bloody "lucky" foreshadowing what's to come in this naive yet oddly relatable slightly criminal immigrant's unusual yet familiar story. It was nice to see the variety of ethnicities on screen, although I wish there was more development between Ricky and Lucky. You get the sense that Ricky is or was Lucky's protector but I would have like to seen the background a bit more. The film slows down after the first act but it really is a type of calm before the storm. About half way into the 2nd act things get "interesting" Lucky has made some stupid decisions and now he wants to get back to his "normal life" but Fernando (the villain) won't have it. The 3rd act is quite intense and things are fleshed out a bit. I really thought Lucky was gonna end up dead like Carlito in Carlito's Way (reminded me a bit of that film)****Spoiler***** but his actions surprised me and I liked the characters dark development and descent. It's a solid job from newbies. The acting, story and production held up throughout. There is some gore towards the end that made me jump in my seat. It was unexpected and thus effective. On the production front, I like the dark yet colorful tone of the film, although I'm not a big fan of the hand-held camera work, in this case it seems to be fitting with the overall theme of Lucky's disjointed life and circumstances. We are close-up and kinda of following Lucky around and there is a feeling of claustrophobia, which I would imagine illegal people might feel in today's America. Don't wanna get into politics and neither does this film, so if that's what you're expecting it's probably not for you. But definitely give it a go if you wanna go for a gritty ride in NYC with cab driver whose not afraid to take some risks for some "easy money." There is no such thing as easy money.

Always on the look out for new indies. Saw a good review in LA Times for Lucky. It wasn't my favorite film but it was solid nonetheless. It's a familiar story but it keeps going at a pretty good pace. Lucky and Fernando had good chemistry and I'm pretty sure we will see more work from this director. Always extra points for diversity.

I was fortunate enough to see Lucky when it premiered at the Urban World Film Festival and was blown away. It exceeded all of my expectations (which were high). The pacing of the film is consistently taut, it's well shot and well acted and I was glued to the screen for the entire ride. Excited for its upcoming release!