The Big Lebowski

A comedy set in Los Angeles. The Dude does not work. He bowls, he drinks, and he does not want to deal with anything. Two men come into his house. They take him for someone else; there is a Lebowski with debts and the name is the same. The Dude goes to ask for compensation for his rug. The wealthy Lebowski receives him and shortly afterwards puts him to work delivering a ransom. From there the film proceeds like a detective story in which nothing is solved. An abduction, a case, a performance artist, a pornographer, a group of Germans and a bowling tournament. He has two friends with him. Walter ties every subject to his own war and ruins everything; Donny never gets to finish speaking. What the narrative is interested in is not the plot but the tone: the film assembles all the parts of a detective story and resolves none of them; even the narrator forgets at the end what he was telling. The structure is taken from a classic Los Angeles crime story and deliberately inverted. The dream sequences are the most expensive and least necessary parts, and that is on purpose. Some of the characters were drawn from real people the directors knew. On release it did badly at the box office and with critics. It earned its cult position in later years and there are annual gatherings held in its name. Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, John Turturro and Philip Seymour Hoffman are in the cast. Joel and Ethan Coen directed. Who it is for: anyone who watches for character and lines rather than plot. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a resolution; the film answers no questions and feels no need to.