The perfect roommate movie

Rating: 9/10 (30 March 2004)

I've never had a roommate who didn't like "The Big Lebowski." It is quite simply a perfect film to watch with friends. It's funny, fluffy, and it goes down really well with the mind-altering substance of your choice.
Bizarrely, this now-classic film hit the theaters like a beached whale; it barely recouped its costs, and was generally regarded as a lightweight followup to the Coen brothers' acclaimed "Fargo." I can see why people were disappointed, actually. "Fargo" is a tightly plotted thriller, and "Lebowski" is shamelessly meandering lunacy. But both films are masterpieces in their own ways.
What's so great about this movie, then? Without sounding too pretentious, I'd like to submit the theory that it captures the rhythms of modern, everyday life. Think about it. We all have stupid hobbies and annoying friends, we'd all rather get trashed than work, and we'd all be pretty hopeless morons if we were suddenly plunked into the middle of a tortuously complex film noir plot. That's the genius of "The Big Lebowski"; it puts the average schmuck into a Chandleresque world of intrigue, and the results are hilarious, in a rather strange way.
I know lots of people who think this is the best comedy ever made, and I'm almost on board with that - Walter alone propels the film to greatness - but in the end, "The Big Lebowski" is just slightly too strange for me to wholly embrace. Oh, it's great, four stars all the way kind of stuff, but after I watch a "deeper" comedy like "The Odd Couple" I feel more fulfilled, more enlightened about the human condition. After I watch "The Big Lebowski," I feel...silly.
But silly is good, when you're in the mood.