THE BIG LEBOWSKI 

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What’s it rated? R

When? 1998

Where’s it showing? The Bay Theatre on Monday, July 22 (6 p.m.; $15 at my805tix.com; a fundraiser for The Rock)

Joel and Ethan Coen helm this bizarro crime caper about Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski (Jeff Bridges), a slacker and avid bowler, who’s mistaken for a millionaire named Lebowski and is attacked by two thugs who urinate on The Dude’s rug before realizing they have the wrong Lebowski. 

The offense sets in motion The Dude’s quest for remuneration for the damages to the rug that “really tied the room together.” Enlisting his bowling buddies—Vietnam vet Walter Sobchak (John Goodman) and put-upon Donny Kerabatsos (Steve Buscemi)—they set out to find the real Big Lebowski (David Huddleston) and demand he pay for the rug.

    What follows is a weird, wild adventure with kidnapping, blackmail, a brief sexual affair, a Busby Berkeley-style choreographed dream sequence, a porn kingpin (Ben Gazzara), German nihilists (Peter Stormare, Torsten Voges, Flea), an intransigent teenager, an angry bowler named Jesus (John Turturro), and a narrator (Sam Elliott) who shows up in the finale. Add in an off-the-hook soundtrack and an absurdist exploration of American culture, and you have a true cult classic. Oh, and it also inspired its own religion, Dudeism.

This fundraiser for Morro Bay’s noncommercial community radio station, The Rock, includes a silent auction and a drawing for a Dude-inspired prize. (117 min.) 

—Glen