Rating: R | Runtime: 91 minutes
Release Date: April 4th, 2025 (USA)
Studio: IFC Films
Director(s): Samir Oliveros
Writer(s): Maggie Briggs & Samir Oliveros / Maggie Briggs, Samir Oliveros & Amanda Freedman (story)

Is that cheating?

It’s an insane true story. Michael Larson flies from Ohio to California to audition and earn a spot on the game show “Press Your Luck” before winning an unthinkable $110,237. Could someone truly be that lucky? Could he be smart enough to somehow beat a presumably random series of lights and prize panels? Could he be reckless enough to challenge the game’s built-in risk without fear of losing everything? These were the questions CBS posed in the production booth because they were desperate to find some evidence that would allow them to refuse payment. In the end, however, they mailed the check, changed the game’s infrastructure to prevent a repeat, and banned Larson from returning.

As Samir Oliveros’ cinematic version of Larson’s (Paul Walter Hauser) victory The Luckiest Man in America states before the studio logos even grace the screen: names and facts have been changed and combined. While this is a reality in the business to streamline the narrative and make it as compelling as possible, Oliveros and co-writer Maggie Briggs were very liberal with their creative license to really augment their lead’s back story. Yes, he drove an ice cream truck, but he didn’t drive it all the way to Television City. Yes, he had a daughter with his wife (Haley Bennett) who was celebrating a birthday, but he also had two other children from two other women. So, you smooth out the edges and embellish the everyman mythos to make Larson an underdog worth our endearment.

The other way to do that is by creating a villain: Bill Carruthers (David Strathairn). A co-creator of the show and de facto “man in charge,” the film opens with him hand-picking Larson precisely because he seemed schlubby enough for audience investment and helpless enough to guarantee a loss. Here was a Whammie fanatic with a personal connection via his family tradition of watching the show during breakfast with his daughter. How could you not want him on that stage for the crowd to love him like a sweet little puppy? Larson appeared to be the perfect mark to go along with a Baptist minister (Brian Geraghty’s Ed) and dental assistant (Patti Harrison’s Janie). Three soft-spoken balls of nerves to either slip up or play it safe so the show could continue normally.

Bill’s right-hand man Chuck (Shamier Anderson) is less enthusiastic. He smells con man from the jump, but he has no real power and can only shoot his boss an “I told you so” face once things begin going off the rails. I wouldn’t go so far as to categorize the movie as a thriller like IMDb, but Chuck does inject a bit of suspense once he’s enlisted to figure out how Larson is doing it … if he’s doing anything at all. The middle section plays like a stationary chase as Michael keeps pressing that button and Chuck keeps rummaging through the contents of the ice cream truck parked in the lot. Can they stop him? Can they prove he’s cheating? Can they spin his luck into a victory for the channel too?

There’s a lot of moving pieces. This is a character-driven dramedy through and through with some really nice human moments (Ed comforting and consoling Michael when things get crazy) and entertainingly heated exchanges behind the scenes (Walton Goggins’ host, James Wolk’s tech, Maisie Williams’ PA, and others are trying to do their jobs to keep the show running without accidentally putting their own heads on the chopping block for what’s happening). And all the while Larson is trying to call home to tell his birthday girl the good news despite the walls closing in. Because tensions are rising higher and higher. Maybe they don’t know what he’s doing, but Michael knows they understand it’s something.

I enjoyed the direction Oliveros and company go as far as turning Larson’s ex-con grifter into a folk hero. The film ostensibly does to his actual story what CBS hopes to do in this onscreen reenactment: ride the coattails of public sentiment to the bank. So, you let Michael stumble into a talk show taping (hosted by Johnny Knoxville). You let him finally make that call and realize he truly is doing this for his daughter. You let the host lean into the roller coaster ride and egg Larson on rather than try and trip him up. Ed even becomes his biggest cheerleader despite not being able to play the game since Micheal keeps hitting extra spins. We are the crowd forming around the craps table when a hot hand is working its magic. As one character says, “It’s the American Dream.”

Hauser has made a career out of this sort of role. Always hapless, I do prefer hapless with a heart of gold (see this and Richard Jewell) over hapless opportunist (see I, Tonya and “Cobra Kai”)—although the latter is a ton of fun too. His ability to pivot from confident to ashamed on a dime is unparalleled. We feel his anxiety and ride the rush of excitement because Hauser wears every emotion on his sleeve. So, it’s the perfect contrast to have Strathairn feeling the heat so his own anxiety proves prevalent for the opposite reason. Add Anderson’s coolly vindictive path towards self-preservation and the game is on. The era-specific production design, expert pacing, and captivating twists once the truth is uncovered provide the scaffolding so the actors can turn it into gold.

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Brian Geraghty, Paul Walter Hauser, and Patti Harrison in THE LUCKIEST MAN IN AMERICA; courtesy of IFC Films.