A celebration of coolness

Rating: 9/10 (3 May 1999)

The Coen Brothers strike again, and provide yet another glimpse into the skewed world inhabited by their imaginations. This perfect and unexpected follow-up to their popular and critical success "Fargo" is an absurdly loony movie that defies simple categorization. Is it a comedy, a thriller, a mystery, a neo-noir? The truth is that, somehow, it's all of that--and a bag of chips. More or less, it's about bowling, mistaken identity, and a soiled rug. Jeff Bridges is so mellow, so cool as The Dude, and Julianne Moore, everybody's favorite indie darling (let's just forget "The Lost World"), is perfect as the mind-bogglingly bizarre Maude. Look for appearances by all the usual suspects (John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, John Turturro) as well as a few new friends. "The Big Lebowski" celebrates coolness, hallucination, and nihilism, and it elevates bowling beyond the status of New Religion directly to The One True Faith.