So the 9th Annual Lebowski Fest is happening this weekend in Louisville. Being in New Jersey is this year's excuse for not attending.
I never attended any of them, but the Lebowskifests that started in Louisville always brightened up the parts of town that I kicked around in.
For the longest time, I knew nothing about the movie or the wild posters that seemed to pop up and slowly dissolve and disappear each year.
My friend Patrick sat me down to watch it once when we were in high school, but the humor of the movie escaped me.
After talking with people about the movie, and after reading about reactions to the movie, mine was not a unique experience. It seems nobody was completely tickled by the movie the first time they saw it, but, like bacteria and hair, it grew on them.
Its hard to nail what's so damn funny about the movie, too. I like the existence of the movie's characters. I think that's what gets it for me. Its about schmucks that get rolled up into one weird, self-styled noose-of-a-situation after another.
The entire movie is one coincidence that creates another coincidence that creates another. And in the middle is one unwitting, go-with-the-wind man that just rides the story.
And in one of the most brilliant themes of the movie, he's left no worse for wear, nor any better, at the movie's end. In hindsight, this is exactly my kind of theme.
And enough people agree with me that its one of those movies that you have to...well...not just own in the personal belonging sense....you have to own it by making it part of you. You absorb it and appreciate it like a good inside joke (even though its audience is getting bigger and bigger).
And like most good jokes, despite its growing audience, it doesn't seem to have been too terribly exploited or overdone. Its impervious to repetition (think Borat), and even those that DO quote the movie in casual conversation (myself) its not too bad, because there aren't any obvious jokes throughout. Everything is so subtle.
So, in a roundabout way, I'm wistful for an event that I never attended. And that seems fitting for a lot of reasons.
The entire movie is one coincidence that creates another coincidence that creates another. And in the middle is one unwitting, go-with-the-wind man that just rides the story.
And in one of the most brilliant themes of the movie, he's left no worse for wear, nor any better, at the movie's end. In hindsight, this is exactly my kind of theme.
And enough people agree with me that its one of those movies that you have to...well...not just own in the personal belonging sense....you have to own it by making it part of you. You absorb it and appreciate it like a good inside joke (even though its audience is getting bigger and bigger).
And like most good jokes, despite its growing audience, it doesn't seem to have been too terribly exploited or overdone. Its impervious to repetition (think Borat), and even those that DO quote the movie in casual conversation (myself) its not too bad, because there aren't any obvious jokes throughout. Everything is so subtle.So, in a roundabout way, I'm wistful for an event that I never attended. And that seems fitting for a lot of reasons.
The costumes don't hurt, either.
Who knows? When the Lebowski Fest train rolls into Brooklyn this fall, maybe I'll catch it there. The Little Lebowski Urban Achievers never say "die," right?
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