THE BIG LEBOWSKI (1998) *** It's a lot easier to think that you can write something this gloriously freewheelin' than actually do it. For some reason those who know that they can't write a decent romance or a mystery invariably think that they could put something down that would be loose and entertaining. They can't. You have to live it first, it's one of the rarest gifts of all. The Coen brothers' characters all absolutely reek of authenticity. Not because they're exact, or accurate, or precisely on point or whatever you want to call it, but because they surely exist in the societal nether worlds depicted, in some sense that is spiritually represented. The true sense. Jeff Bridges is absolutely brilliant as the centerpiece, in that understated manner of brilliance that is undetectable to the (over-) trained eye, but about halfway through John Goodman just takes over the show. You just can't wait for him to start ranting about anything, and his three phrase analysis of Iraqi military might is enough to make any veteran proud. So it's Jeff making his own rules, Goodman determinedly living by the rules that he's entirely certain he's figured out what they are, and when the two greats come together they contemplate no achievement greater than a bowling team. As you can see, Shakespeare's observation that "greatness" may be "thrust" upon one is considered, in some of the finer circles, to be something of a threat. Goodman is so great at doing the Midwestern bloke bit that it's easy to forget how versatile he really is. Babe Ruth, King of England, this guy...it's probably his finest performance, and that's saying something. John Turturro does an unbelievable amount with way fewer lines and virtually no screen time. He's, at once, brilliant and formidable and disgusting and cheesy and cheap. I'm ready to cast him as anything. Brilliant. Joel Coen paces it perfectly, it feels almost like one of those early '70s movies. No, not because of the knowing stoner jokes (settle in, my reactionary friends, the weed will be with us forever, and that one's not going away), but because it's so loose, and possessed with that sense of infinite and immediate possibility that once threatened to go mainstream. Steve Buscemi is perfect, too, and David Huddleston, and Tara Reid. Flea is cast against type, obviously, as a German nihilist. It's a brilliant representation of something that...not so much refuses to attain or be quantified as brilliant...but...more had somethin' else goin' on at the time and forgot (to put it diplomatically) to notice.
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