The Big Lebowski (1998) Review

 

The Big Lebowski (1998)

The Big Lebowski follows the Dude who after being mistaken for another man, is hired to track down the man’s missing wife with the help of his two friends.

Everything about this Coen Brothers flick ensures its cult status from day one, being one of the most intelligently crafted comedic dramas ever. They excel in kooky characters and in a movie where the plot is inconsequential, the characters and dialogue all shine in creating a movie that is endlessly quotable and gets better upon each viewing.

It tricks you into thinking the plot matters, when in reality, there is none. Aside from a missing rug, torched car, and a dead Donnie, the characters all end up where they started out, a couple of drunk, high, and deadbeat friends, sitting around bowling.

The Dude, aka Jeff Lebowski, uses the “disappearance” of his shared namesake’s wife, to make a couple bucks, playing every side in the ordeal and still somehow ending up getting fucked over, a running gag throughout the film. Again though, it’s the relationships and characters that stand out, where as a viewer it’s best to just let the whole thing wash over you without trying to understand it, because genuinely there is nothing to understand. It’s controlled chaos that excels in idiotic stoner comedy and the usually needless violence of the Dude’s best friend Walter, a PTSD-riddled Vietnam Veteran. The film uses the Dude as a device to introduce oddballs, billionaires, and criminals throughout Los Angeles, and the weird quirks each of them have, which contribute to the bewildering response to such situations for Lebowski.

It also contains an amazing cast that includes Steve Buscemi, David Huddleston, Julianne Moore, John Goodman, & Jeff Bridges. Bridges is amazing in this career defining role, bringing an ignorant hilarity to every scene he’s in. Goodman is also utterly fantastic, bringing such a rough and ridiculous energy to the movie.

The Big Lebowski, another masterpiece from the Coen Brothers, is in the end a heartfelt story of friendship that is remarkably intelligent in its stupidity, something that makes it genuinely one of the funniest and most entertaining movies ever.

10/10