In 1998 The Big Lebowski introduced us to the extravagant Jesus Quintana played by  John Turturro, a rival bowler clad in purple who licked his bowling ball and was a sex offender. In 2019 Turturro created a spin off film starring Quintana and most peculiarly it is also a remake of a controversial 1974 film called Going Places by Bertrand Blier. 

The film opens with Quintana being released from prison following a conversation with the warden played by Christopher Walken who sadly is only on screen for a few short minutes. In this scene they quickly explain away the characters sex offender status as a misunderstanding before he goes on his way. He meets up with his friend Petey (Bobby Canavale) and an ex-girlfriend called Marie (Audrey Tautou) before embarking on a series of petty crimes and sexual adventures. 

To say the film is bizarre is an understatement. Fans of the Coen Brothers movie expecting a similar tone will be disappointed. Aside from a series of quotes and callbacks in the opening twenty minutes there is no connective tissue here except for the title character. The Coens were not involved in the film and Turturro wrote and directed this feature. In fact there seems to be little in the way of coherent plotting either. The trios sexual explorations and crime sprees do not seem to amount to anything really other than a series of madcap antics that keep you interested just because of their sheer peculiarity. In fact it seems incredibly bizarre to transplant this cult character from a comedy film to a remake of a French 1970’s sexual exploration that retains that era’s mindset. 

Unfortunately it’s peculiarity and it’s stellar list of cameos (Susan Sarandon, Jon Hamm, Tim Blake Nelson and Pete Davidson also appear) is not enough to recommend it.