Jeff Bridges is the Dude, a drop out looking for his virtue, and his rug, in the moral free-zone of contemporary Malibu. The Coens are consummate pastiche artists, and the framework here is taken wholesale from Raymond Chandler by way of Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye and Jeff Bridges’ early 80s noir, Cutter’s Way. But transposing the mechanics of the mystery thriller to the early 90s trips us into a stoner screwball misadventure, a recurring comic nightmare.
Staff Pick: Casey
The plot — thick as Kahlua — accommodates nihilist former krautrockers, fluxus artists, porn moguls, tearaway Minnesota farm girls, paraplegic fake millionaires, TV Western writers in iron lungs, neo-Jewish Vietnam vets, pedophile bowlers and Saddam Hussein… Key ingredients include the endlessly quotable dialogue, an inspired cast of actors clearly relishing their lines, and T Bone Burnett’s jukebox soundtrack.
Nick Bradshaw, The DVD Stack
Media Partner
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, David Huddlestone, Philip Seymour Hoffman, John Turturro, David Thewlis, Ben Gazzara, Sam Elliott
USA
1998
English
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Screenwriter
Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Cinematography
Roger Deakins
Original Music
Carter Burwell
Production Design
Rick Heinrichs
Art Director
John Dexter
90s, Baby!
Ten years. 11 weeks. 90 films from the 1990s. This summer, 90’s Baby! takes a deep dive into a defining decade of cinema.
Lessons of Darkness
Werner Herzog's unforgettable documentary reveals the unfolding disaster of the Kuwaitian oil fields in flames in 1991 as a sweeping inferno of mesmerizing power.
Beau Travail
Inspired by Herman Melville's Billy Budd, Claire Denis' transfixing Beau Travail is set in East Africa. Sgt Galoup (Denis Lavant) reflects on his time in the French Foreign Legion, and the impact of the handsome Sentain (Gregoire Colin).
Three Kings
George Clooney headlines David O Russell's bold, brazen attempt to get to grips with the immediate aftermath of Operation Desert Storm, as 4 US soldiers try to liberate a missing shipment of gold amidst the chaos and carnage.
But I'm a Cheerleader
Megan (Natasha Lyonne) is the perfect All-American Girl, or so she thinks. That is until she’s shipped off to conversion therapy. This pitch black comedy is wrapped in a saccharine bow, featuring the icon herself, RuPaul, as a conversion counsellor.
Magnolia
This deeply personal 1999 California opus is ripe for rediscovery. Mapping the emotional traumas of half-a-dozen major characters as they crisscross the San Fernando Valley in search of either recognition or reconciliation, it's PTA's riskiest gamble.
Election
Tracy Flick (Reece Witherspoon) is running for Student President, but Mr. McAllister (Matthew Broderick) has other ideas... This remarkably sour millennial comedy from Alexander Payne (The Holdovers; Sideways; The Descendents) hits twice as hard today.
Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai
Ghost Dog (Forest Whitaker) is an assassin, but he's also an existential loner who adheres to his personal code. Despite the thriller trappings, this is really a lampoon of that genre, and a melancholy reverie for the cultural melting pot we call home.
The Straight Story
David Lynch goes a different direction in this linear Midwestern about a septuagenarian (Richard Farnsworth) who drives nearly 400km on a lawnmower to visit his ailing brother (Harry Dean Stanton).
90s Surprise Film
The 90s movie we have all been missing... Join us for a celebratory wake for this year's 90s, Baby series! What you will be seeing is top secret (no, not Top Secret!, that was 1984) but it will be at least 26 years old and it will be new to this series.
The Wind Will Carry Us
Kiarostami's dry comic masterpiece follows a Tehrani film team's thwarted attempts to document a traditional Kurdish funeral... Trouble being, there's no one to bury, and, worse, virtually no cell service...
Fight Club
1999 was a very good year for movies, but nothing captured millennial angst quite so vividly as David Fincher's bruising black comedy about what it means to be a man today. This modern classic does everything short of rattling your seat to get a reaction.