Coen Brothers: Ranking Their Films From Worst To Best

5. The Big Lebowski (1998)

The cult film to end all cult films, a movie showing that sometimes, there's a man for his particular time and place, and there's a man who fits right in, and sometimes, well, sometimes there's a man. The absurdity of The Big Lebowski defies explanation. Bowling, soiled rugs, the porn industry, Nazis (excuse me, nihilists), White Russians galore, all come together and hang loosely from a thin plot that meanders and never really finds resolution. Plot has never been important to the Coen Brothers, and nowhere is that more apparent than in The Big Lebowski. This film is great because of the characters. The Dude and his supreme laziness, Walter and his perspective, Donny and his ability to be "out of his element", even the bit players are memorable in this movie. Though he doesn't have much screentime, the late Philip Seymour Hoffman puts in some of his most humorous work as Brandt. His guided tour of the Lebowski study would be a throwaway scene under any other director - here, it becomes one of Hoffman's most memorable scenes in his entire filmography.