http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/08/movies/08EDEL.html
The Big Lebowski is a cult movie? I thought it was bland, humorless and tedious but then the Coens can do a lot of wrong in my eyes. (Blood Simple, Miller's Crossing, Fargo, yay; everything else nay and worse for O Brother which deserves utter, unrelenting contempt.) Jonathan Rosenbaum and Alan Moore are both supporters of Lebowski but that hardly explains anything.
By the way, if you need to register for the NYT just make up stuff; it works. I'm not sure why they even bother.