“Your Lucky Day” starts with a drug deal gone bad in Miami, leaving the dealer, Sterling (Angus Cloud from “Euphoria”), desperate and angry. He walks down the street to a convenience store and starts browsing through some adult magazines.
Over his shoulder, he hears a loud, arrogant guy named Laird (Spencer Garrett) making racist remarks to the clerk, Amir (Mousa Hussein Kraish), before scanning some Megaball lottery tickets he’d bought to see if any were winners. To his shock, one of them is, and it’s not pocket change — the ticket is worth $156 million. Like an idiot, he starts shouting excitedly, drawing the attention of the few other customers, including Sterling, who immediately decides he’s going to steal that ticket.
Sterling pulls a gun on Laird, who’s understandably not happy about parting with something so valuable. Their yelling back and forth is overheard in the men’s room by rookie cop Cody (Sterling Beaumon), who emerges with gun drawn, determined to stop what he thinks is a simple robbery.
That’s when things go from bad to worse and “Your Lucky Day” really takes off, turning into a fascinating negotiation between these people who find themselves in the midst of a situation where they’re forced into decisions nobody anticipated.
I won’t spill any more details about “Your Lucky Day” except to tell you I really enjoyed it as a tense thriller that kept me guessing until the end, with crisp dialogue, intense performances, and nice camera choices from writer/director Dan Brown. My wife concurred, exclaiming as the credits rolled, “Now that’s a movie!”
I give it an 8.5 out of 10. Now streaming on Hoopla and video on demand.
Final note: “Your Lucky Day” is dedicated to Cloud, who died from a drug overdose this summer.