Our Picks Recommended

The Big Lebowski and Crazy Heart 

I've complained about this before and I'll complain again: I can't stand The Big Lebowski. Not that it's a bad film—far from it—but it's overquoted by college students, slackers and worst of all, hipsters. There's only so many times you can hear a line like "It tied the whole room together" or watch someone order a White Russian with a knowing smirk before you feel tempted to hit them.

On the other hand, the N.C. Museum of Art's screening of The Big Lebowski and Crazy Heart on consecutive nights offers a master class in what makes Jeff Bridges cool. See him going all-out goofy as The Dude, barely able to comprehend the world as he wanders through a Raymond Chandler-esque plot in The Big Lebowski, and crumbling as the self-aware, faded country star in Crazy Heart, for which he won an Oscar. It may have taken almost four decades since The Last Picture Show, but Bridges is finally on the Hollywood A-list—there's even buzz for the upcoming sequel to Tron.

Spend some time with Bridges and friends (did you know John Goodman's Walter Sobchak was based on Red Dawn director and Apocalypse Now scribe John Milius?) over two nights under the stars at NCMA's amphitheater. The Dude abides ... dammit! Now I'm doing it! Tickets are $4 for both shows and free for museum members; both shows start at 8:30 p.m. —Zack Smith