The Big Lebowski (1998) - Joel Coen

I knew I had gone too long without seeing The Big Lebowski when I got to college and random references to “the Dude” and “abiding” started popping up left and right. Also, after seeing two previous Coen brothers’ films, Miller’s Crossing (1990) and No Country For Old Men (2007) in the past year, I knew it was time for me to see IMDb #130.

The story follows the Jeffrey Lebowski, known as the Dude (Jeff Bridges), who is mistaken for the millionaire by the same name. Some thugs come to the Dude’s house, beat him up saying that his wife owes their boss money, pee on his rug, and leave. The Dude goes to the real Jeffrey Lebowski’s house and claims that he owes the Dude a new rug. Later, when Mr. Lebowski’s wife is kidnapped and being ransomed for $1 million, he hires the Dude to deliver the million to her kidnappers and get her back. That fails, and the Dude slowly uncovers a bigger mystery involving scandal, embezzlement, and the cutting off of a poor woman’s pinky toe.

Now that I’ve seen three Coen brothers’ films, I have a strong sense of their writing style and directorial choices. The Coen brothers obviously love old films, as Miller’s Crossing was based on a Dashiell Hammett crime story, and No Country For Old Men is an homage to the western genre. The Big Lebowski can be read as both of these genres together. There is the problem of a man caught up in a scandal of warring factions (in this case Mr. Lebowski and his wife’s kidnappers), and must outwit everyone above him in order to survive. The Coen brothers even stated that the film is loosely inspired by Raymond Chandler stories, known for his complex crime novels. On the other hand, it involves a man rising up, going on an adventure, and becoming a hero in order to keep the peace and return back to his world of solitude. Not to mention it’s narrated by famous Western star, Sam Elliott.

In any sense, the film is a nonstop hilarious adventure story, and has achieved a cult-like status over the past decade. Most attribute this to its use of zany-dream sequences (shown above), and the stoner attitude of the main character, the Dude. Probably one of the funniest parts of the film is the Dude and his friend’s obsession with bowling. Even when faced with death, several of the most dramatic scenes are intercut with scenes of the Dude and his friends competing in their bowling tournament. John Goodman (Monsters Inc., Argo) plays the Dude’s best friend Walter Sobchak, a Vietnam war veteran who takes the Sabbath very seriously, even though he only converted to Judaism for his now ex-wife. Here Walter ironically points a gun at their bowling adversary for insisting that he did not step over the line during his roll.

This gif is also the source of the famous “Am I the only one who…” meme. Overall, I thought everything about the movie was great, and I was blown away by how many people I loved were in the movie, including some Miller’s Crossing cast-members (Steve Buscemi). I love John Goodman and Jeff Bridges, but I think I was happiest seeing Julianne Moore in her role as Maude Lebowski.

She was British and amazing. This is also my new favorite gif. But aside from Maude, the Dude is the most enjoyable character in the movie. He even loves two of my favorite things, bowling and White Russians. Watching him lazily try to skim the surface was the main source of comedy, and Jeff Bridges did a great job in portraying that pitiful sloth-like sense of not caring about anything. 

 

I highly recommend the film to anyone who enjoys a high-stakes adventure and a hilarious comedy in one.

Carrie (1976) - Brian De Palma

You can’t deny that you know exactly what movie this is from. You even know the story. Carrie is the girl everyone picks on in school, the outcast that gets elected prom queen as a joke. Unfortunately for her high school peers, this loner has recently come into some psychic powers, and when a prank goes too far, she maniacally and painfully takes her revenge on everyone involved. 

The greatest and most surprising part about this film? You sort of root for her.

Carrie was Stephen King’s first published novel, and his first to be adapted into a feature film. It stars Sissy Spacek (who a friend pointed out is Mae Tuck from Tuck Everlasting, and who is also the forgetful mother that gets sent to a senior citizens’ home in The Help), as Carrie White, the girl too weird for words. 

No. I’m not talking Lilo crazy. Carrie is shy, awkward, and very introverted. But early on, we realize that her weirdness is not at all her fault. In the first scene, Carrie is teased because she freaks out when she gets her period during an after-gym-class shower. The other girls throw tampons and towels at her, laughing while Carrie huddles in the corner of the shower and cries. Soon, we find out that Carrie’s mother is a twisted religion-obsessed crazy person. She punishes Carrie for getting her period, saying that she is a sinner and the blood is a sign of her sins. She then locks her daughter in a closet with a deformed Jesus relic and forces her to pray for hours.

The film is iconically slow in its buildup. The director has stated that he drew a lot from Hitchcock, most notably that the high school is named Bates High School after Norman Bates in Psycho, and that the film uses shrieking violins every time Carrie uses her psychic powers.

Right, so Carrie discovers she has psychic powers. First it’s breaking a light bulb with her mind, then it’s a cigarette plate, and then later a mirror. All of this happens in the same day, and Carrie immediately begins researching to figure out what’s going on, and she realizes that when she concentrates hard enough (usually when she’s very angry), she can move things with her mind.

So the girls who bullied Carrie are punished with a super intense detention by the gym teacher, the one teacher that actually pays attention to Carrie. She’s amazing. Here she is slapping the main bully for defying her.

The gym teacher eventually decides this girl is banned from prom, which inspires the whole “let’s make Carrie for prom queen and pour pigs blood on her when she is on stage” idea comes from. Surprisingly, there is one “popular” girl, Sue, who reaches out to Carrie and tells her boyfriend to ask Carrie to prom, and Sue and her boyfriend are therefore left out of the plan to prank Carrie.

The whole scene is spectacularly done in my opinion. Everything from Carrie hearing she has won, all the way until the bucket of pig’s blood falls on her, is in slow motion. Carrie is the happiest she will ever be, and the film makes sure to relish those moments. Everyone is applauding her, and when it finally falls, they all begin to laugh, just as Carrie’s mother told her they would. This causes Carrie to snap, and she shuts all of the doors with her mind and burns down the whole school, escaping and walking home drenched in blood. The most terrifying part I found in this scene is that Carrie never blinks once, as if she is so in shock by what just happened. The film did so well to make us pity Carrie, that we don’t care that she is killing all of the people that bullied her. Unfortunately the gym teacher dies in Carrie’s rage (unlike in the book), which I took as a sign that she didn’t do enough to help her. 

When Carrie arrives home, her mother is waiting for her to kill her, and that whole seen is perfect too. At first she conforts her, and then she pulls out a kitchen knife and stabs her, causing her to fall down the stairs. But Carrie’s powers are too great for her mother, and she is crucified up against the wall by the rest of the kitchen knives. The image is important because it reflects the contorted views of her mother, just as the Jesus in the closet had arrows through his stomach and his head turned to the right, the mother dies with knives in her stomach and her head turned to the right. It’s almost as haunting as watching her mother chase her through the house with the knife.

The film is amazing in my opinion, but the last scene is what makes it actually perfect. Sue, the girl who looked out for Carrie, is the one survivor of the whole movie. Carrie and her mother die when the house collapses. Sue goes to the rubble of Carrie’s house, and just as she reaches to put flowers over the “grave,” Carrie’s still-bloody hand reaches out from the rubble and grabs her. Sue then wakes up, shaking in her mother’s arms and sobbing. Sue may have survived, but the psychological scars from the event are a fate worse than death.

In this sense, I think the film is trying to get at the idea that no one is unharmed in bullying. Karma eventually catches up with the bullies, and the victims are harmed psychologically beyond repair. In the book, Sue writes a memoir warning people to never forget the events that took place at the prom. The book is a call for a harder cracking down on bullying, and I actually find it appropriate that they’re remaking it this year with Hugo and Kick-Ass’s Chloë Grace Moretz and The Big Lebowski and Crazy Stupid Love’s Julianne Moore.

The film was both a financial and critical success, it has a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes, and was nominated for 2 Oscars (Best Lead Actress for Sissy Spacek and Best Supporting Actress for the mother, Piper Laurie).

I could talk more about the thematic implications of the mother’s corrupted religious views, as we eventually find out that she only had sex once, when her boyfriend was drunk the night Carrie was conceived, and ever since has vowed to be pure. But I’m sort of shaken after seeing it so late at night, so I think I’m gonna go see if I can find a nightlight at my college bookstore.