Turturro’s return to the role of the bowling champ he played in the Coen brothers’ cherished classic is an amiably indifferent caper
John Turturro’s planned return to the universe of The Big Lebowski was announced four years ago with a fanfare as a much-anticipated spin-off from one of cinema’s most cherished cult items. With its belated theatrical release nixed by the coronavirus, The Jesus Rolls has now snuck out on streaming platforms. It appears key creative personnel lost faith or patience along the way: these choppy 85 minutes comprise a sunnily indifferent caper, displaying next to none of the Coens’ visual invention, and little of their wit. At best, what you get is an amiable footnote.
Turturro follows the road taken by Bertrand Blier in 1974’s bad-taste classic Les Valseuses (AKA Going Places), replaying pivotal couplings and conversations, albeit with a sensibility too goofy to push as far or as forcefully as Blier. Released from Sing Sing, bowling baller Jesus Quintana is met by old pal Pete (Bobby Cannavale), and the pair bounce around the fringes of
New York state, picking up braless nympho (Audrey Tautou, helpless in the face of a 1974-era characterisation) and encountering endless cameoing celebs: Jon Hamm as an arsey coiffeur,
Pete Davidson as somebody’s unclaimed son, Susan Sarandon smartly cast in the Jeanne Moreau role as a soured drifter seeking one final fling. Mostly, though, everyone is driving around looking for the one compelling reason for the film to exist.