LUCKY ****

The 91-year-old Harry Dean Stanton died shortly after making "Lucky". He may not have won the posthumous Oscar I was predicting for him but at least he went to his grave in the knowledge that he had gone out with a career-best performance. John Carroll Lynch's directorial debut doesn't pretend to be anything other than a picture of an old man living out his days independently in the present-day American West. It's beautifully made in the style of American movies of the seventies with their emphasis on character and landscape and as well as a terrific performance from Stanton, (he's never really off the screen), it's also beautifully written and acted by its remarkable supporting cast that includes director David Lynch and a still handsome 81-year-old James Darren. Of course, seeing the film now that Stanton's dead, and so soon after completing the film, is heartbreaking because it suddenly looks like autobiography, the last days, not just of Lucky but of one of the screen's great character actors. It would make a great double-bill with David Lynch's underrated masterpiece "The Straight Story" which also featured Stanton.