I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

****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.

So I had no plans of seeing this movie except that I happened to be attending a festival at Village East Cinemas and saw that "lucky" was playing with a Q/A and my boyfriend wanted to watch it. The movie is Good. Not Great but solid. The actors did a good job and the story, although familiar, (I'm an immigrant) had an interesting spin on it. It was unapologetic and I appreciated that. This is a real independent film and you can tell the budget must have been tight, which was acknowledged in the Q/A so that much more respect to the filmmakers for pulling it off. After hearing everything they had to do to get this made, you appreciate it that much more. Kudos to the team. The music was great too.

First, the only real redeeming value I found in this film is that I grew up and lived in the areas that 75% of this film was shot at, for 35 years. 31st Street in Astoria NY, LIC, Queens Blvd., Woodside, Sunnyside and some in Manhattan. Seeing the old Hood was cool but, barring that, the film was contrived and clearly in the "B" movie category.The Protagonist/Director, Did a pretty good job but that's where it ends. Clearly he is the only talent in this mess. The antagonist is about as menacing as a bad pimple. In that neighborhood, (or any in NY for that matter) if a guy like him acted the way he did in real life, he would have had his head handed to him 10 minutes into the film. (Based on his "bad guy" portrayal) The story is a familiar enough one that rings true as I've had friends in similar situations (illegal and trying to gain citizenship) via any means possible. But, to believe a guy steps into a cab and brings the driver (who he has never met) into his world of drug dealing, murder, prostitution etc., is ridiculous. The fact the film tries (and fails miserably) to get the viewer to believe that those scenarios really happen clearly tells you the director has never dealt with the streets before.Perhaps, for some Park Ave. spoiled kids this might be believable, but, for anyone who grew up in any major metropolitan city to believe this is a far cry from truth. As the saying goes, "where there is smoke there is fire"....regarding this film, someone should have doused these flames by the second act!If you can view this film for free, then give it a shot, otherwise, don't spend a dime. It's a fairy tale, not a crime thriller.

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.