The Big Lebowski
Joel & Ethan Coen, 1998, USA/UK, 117 mins, Certificate: 18
First off, an important piece of info. As you know we are moving under the Sydenham Arts umbrella which we are excited and grateful for. We have been working together since September to bring more to the offer of the film club, namely our Christmas Quiz, a FREE family screening of “The Polar Express” and have more plans in 2019. Regrettably, some of the running costs associated to the film club are increasing in the new year, (one of the reasons we were unable to continue alone) and therefore there will be small £1 increase to the entry fee making this £6.
And that’s one more reason to start the new year big! Celebrating “The Big Lebowski”.
You see, “The Dude, His Dudeness, or uh, Duder, or El Duderino” just celebrated his 20th year Anniversary. But, man, he doesn’t look a day older!
It was back in 1998 that this absolutely iconic, ageless, cult classic premiered and took the pop culture by storm, leaving indelible marks. Directed by the fearless, Oscar winning Coen brothers (“Fargo”, “No Country For Old Men”) it unfolds a surreal, tragicomic case of mistaken identity. As the easy going, White Russians drinking Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski is mistaken for a millionaire of the same name, both his rug and his everyday routines get ruined. With the help of his bowling mates he seeks some kind of compensation for his upturned life, only to dig himself deeper into a hole.
Packed with insanely quotable pieces of dialogue and starring the magnificent, all, Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi and Philip Seymour Hoffman it is part drama, part comedy, part musical, part sociopolitical satire, part heist and crime thriller, part noir, part post-modern western, part a feminist manifesto! A “transgenre” film, if you will, whose many, disparate movie genres/parts come together, mingle and correspond perfectly with each other to produce an extraordinary, unique in character, irresistible and unexpectedly humane whole.
In other words, this is an ever influential pop art masterpiece, which even inspired a religion: Dudeism. Well, the Dudes abide.
Reviews:
★★★★★ “One of a kind… after two decades, the film looks weirdly less shaggy, less dishevelled to me: sleeker, sharper, more integrated and with more menace, more mystery.” Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
★★★★ “Far from being shallow pastiche, it’s actually about something: what it means to be a man, to be a friend, and to be a ‘hero’ for a particular time and place.” Jeoff Andrew, Time Out London
“Lebowski’s virtuosity serves a sense of modesty… It’s been 20 years, and the Coen brothers’ sly and hilarious homage to noir movies and detective novels hasn’t aged one bit. But that’s just, like, our opinion, man.” Adam Nayman, The Ringer
★★★★★ “For those who delight in the Coens’ divinely abstract take on reality, this is pure nirvana (cross Blood Simple with Raising Arizona if you must), yet beyond the hysterical black comedy, scattered violence and groovy dialogue, there sounds the same song to human goodness which enriched Fargo. In The Dude’s easy riding, people-loving approach to the mess of his life, you are witness to something no end of $200 mill sinking tubs could touch upon. In a perfect world all movies would be made by the Coen brothers.” Ian Nathan Empire