Lefty Lucy
Directed by Kelly Helen Thompson and M.C. Nowell. Written by Kelly Helen Thompson, M.C. Nowell and Steve Balewicz
Lefty Lucy follows a rideshare driver by the name of Lucy as she ventures out into the night picking up the strangest of the strange. Some of them are deadly and some of them are just plain strange. You never know who or what might hop into the backseat of the car.
The idea behind this movie is fairly solid. Rideshare companies have been popping up everywhere for years making many people taxi drivers in their own right. This material is ripe for exploration. Lefty Lucy kind of does that. You have an endless parade of people and none of them are normal people in the strictest sense of the word. Why would they be? This is night time in Tampa. Weird is as weird does I'm afraid.
It might be a little bit too much. You're hoping that you might learn more about Lucy than just the basics. You don't really. You know that she likes music. She's just as perplexed by these people as the audience is. She seems to live a fairly fulfilling life. She seems to have friends and has a passion for something but you can tell something is missing. The movie does have a difficult time articulating this but if you look deeply enough, you'll see it.
It has some interesting moments. As someone I'm sure has mentioned before, it is an episodic film by nature. But the segments are so quick and leave such little lasting residue left even with the crime of murder. Nothing seems to affect Lucy much and that makes things fairly dull in some aspects.
The acting is pretty decent in some areas. Most of the actors aren't given much time to develop their characters. But that's fine. Their entire point for existing is to come into Lucy's life and affect her. Some do in a large way but most don't. I think this might be a commentary of how you have to be when you're working as a rideshare driver.
I think this is a good start. I see more things from this particular writer/director expanding on what was attempted here. There is that potential. I didn't much care for this movie. It felt entirely too long for me. It was one situation after the other and if they weren't going to open up things with the character of Lucy, why are we going on this ride? The passengers at times became entirely cartoonish to the point of idiocy. That might have been the case but it could have benefitted from toning it down a bit. I still say check it out. You might have a different opinion than me. The movie is available to watch for free on Youtube. I will include a link to the movie in the comments section. I give this movie a D.
