Lucky Harry

Harry Dean Stanton, the late legend gives his going away performance in the sensible existentialist drama Lucky (2017). He plays the role of an aged man at his last act of life who doesn't believe in the soul, vehemently denies the existence of it. The film chronicles few days of his life, which doesn't necessarily reflect great writing but some of the scenes displays pure brilliance. The scene where Lucky reads the definition of Realism from an encyclopedia or the scene where out of nowhere he starts to sing 'Volver, volver', the infamous mariachi song, I found both of the scenes extraordinary. The film poses the ultimate existential question but doesn't dissolve in that, eventually it returns to the unique mood it creates. After asking everyone in the bar that what do you do with the information that everything eventually goes away, you are actually nothing, Lucky answers the deepest question himself by saying 'You smile'. The fact that he delivered this performance at the age of 90 is both surprising and not, because he is used to dive in roles of strange uncomfortable men (Paris, Taxas) and his age couldn't be an obstacle to give a flawless performance in his last work. In retrospect we are also lucky that we got one last gem from him.