Sucker (2015)

Very well executed

Admirable film.

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Lawrence (John Luc) is a teen from a Chinese family living in Australia. He has taken up with a con artist and his daughter who he finds attractive. He teaches Lawrence the art of the con, using truisms like "You can't cheat and honest man" to justify the scams.This is a light Australian drama/comedy that was mildly clever and entertaining. In addition to learning about cons, Lawrence gets a valuable lesson about life. Not "The Sting" or "Brothers Bloom" but enjoyable nonetheless.From IMDB: "The film is the adaptation of comedian/actor Lawrence Leung's critically acclaimed award-winning one-man theater show SUCKER. The original live show was a critical and sell-out success at the Edinburgh Fringe, Melbourne International Comedy Festival and the Sydney Opera House."Guide: No F-words, sex, or nudity.

I saw this as part of AACTA screenings. I was neither pleased nor disappointed by this movie. The movie is based on a comedy stage show. I found issues with this as it was not particularly well structured. This movie shows a good sized budget with the fine cast with Timothy Spall doing his schtick. Spall is good but too much of a caricature to be believable, he pulls out some of his older pieces from Potter, Willows et al, the problem I had was that as a conman you should not see him coming, he needs to be believable instead he is a larger than life parody.The principle character, Lawrence, is supposed to grow if it is a coming of age. Other than the final act he seemed totally out of his depth until he suddenly became a master card shark.This movie needed development. There was stuff about con artists not having friends but I needed to see the loneliness of this life. The cons looked a bit high school, I can understand the opening as Lawrence learns but he needed to be en pointe by the end.

I'm proud to say that I was apart of the lucky group of people who got to see this splendid movie at its premiere and boy was it amazing. This movie blew my socks off, literally. After the movie finished I had to search the entire cinema just to find them because they just flew right off my feet.The story is an inspirational tale of young Asian teenager (YouTuber, John Luc AKA MyChonny) trying to find true calling in life after he's caught cheating on his medical exam. He eventually finds it learning how to scam people from master swindler (Timothy Spall aka the rat in Harry Potter) and his sometimes hot daughter (Lily Sullivan, great actress). This is one of the few Australian movies that make Aussie cinema proud! (Unlike 'Australia'.. what on Earth happened there?)It's YouTuber MyChonny's first official acting role and you can tell he was at ease from all of his years of experience acting as Asian mum, Asian dad, Asian boy, Asian girl and the list goes on. In conclusion the movie is a interesting, well thought out story by Lawrence Leung and Ben Chessell did an amazing job directing it, his cinematography skills are truly something special.I highly recommend this movie!P.S. Did anyone notice how buff Chonny looked? WHAT A BOD!!

Sucker is, in some ways, a subtle coming-of-age film. It explores stereotypes, love, and perhaps most importantly, self-discovery. That's not to say that this is an solemnly serious film - there are plenty of comedic moments that exploit cultural norms and realities. Lawrence's (John Luc) journey with con-artist The Professor (Timothy Spall) and Sarah is, for the most part, exciting and edited skillfully enough to not be mundane. The film has excellent visual direction with camera angles and cuts all chosen cautiously and adeptly. Nonetheless there are some problems with pacing. At 90 minutes, the film feels a tad too rushed. As a result, both the story and the characters are not fleshed out as much as they could have been. For what Sucker is aiming to achieve, however, in terms of its thematic simplicity, the running time is not that significant an issue. I do feel however that another 15 minutes would have given the film more closure. Internet sensation Mychonny's debut on the big screen is definitely worth a watch. It's a simple but relatable story elevated by a wonderful cast and a pleasing tonal consistency.