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‘Lucky Lu’ Review: A Gripping, Moving Portrait of an Immigrant Gig-Worker’s Desperation and Resilience
Taiwanese star Chang Chen anchors in Lloyd Lee Choi's moving debut following a delivery rider in a race against time across hostile New York City.
Lloyd Lee Choi’s compassionate, absorbing, sometimes agonizing “ Lucky Lu ” deals exclusively in the latter type — the tough luck of the narrow escape and the near miss, which doesn’t manifest in sudden windfalls but in the paltry miracle of bad circumstances not being so much worse. Keeping all his worries from them — but not so much from Yaya (or Queenie as she has chosen to be called in America) who is more observant than he realizes — Lu’s increasingly desperate trail around New York with his solemn-faced little girl in tow becomes a kind of odyssey against adversity. And his aesthetic keeps pace with Brendan Mills’ excellent editing, in changing mood from the jittery, quick-cut, handheld first half to a steadier, more contemplative last act as Lu’s treks across the boroughs become longer and slower and exhaustion begins to set in.
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