♥♥♥♥♥♥
+ Best Movie of the Year
+ Best American Movie of the Year + Best Breakthrough Actress of the Year: Frances McDormand + Best Cop Movie of the Year + Best Dark Comedy of the Year + Most Deserved Hit of the Year + Best $ Return of the Year: 8.65 Times the Cost + Best Mega-hit of the Year + Best North Dakota Movie of the Year + Best Poster of the Year
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| A homespun, fantastic, ominous poster for the 'homespun murder story' that is Ethan and Joel Coen's Fargo |
Pathetic car salesman Jerry Lundegaard of Minneapolis hires a couple of goons to kidnap his wife, so that his father-in-law will pay a hefty ransom, (of which he will receive half, - enough to help him against the creditors that are at his throat.) - But nothing goes as planned in Fargo, North Dakota.
Fargo is written and directed by Minnesotan master filmmakers and brothers Ethan and Joel Coen (Miller's Crossing (1990), both). The film claims to be based on a true story, but the Coen brothers have since been pressed to divulge that it is essentially only true that it is a story.
Frances McDormand (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)) as Brainerd police chief Marge Gunderson and William H. Macy (Cellular (2004)) as Jerry Lundegaard both give outstanding performances in Fargo: McDormand is hilarious, Macy is exceptional, making us actually like his morally inadmissible character. Steve Buscemi (The Boss Baby (2017)) and Peter Stormare (Graceland (2015), TV-series) are also just swell as the pair of really ugly guys that Macy employs.
The Coens elegantly weave humor with suspense and a particular, snowy kind of poetry in Fargo, where life is lived right alongside pointless violence, (much as in real life.)
Fargo is a precious gem and a true masterpiece.
Related posts:
Ethan and Joel Coen: Hail, Caesar! (2016) - The Coen brothers serve a whimsical, flashy letdown
Unbroken (2014) - Despite good elements, Jolie's Grand WWII Biopic is mostly distant and weak (co-writers)
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) or, The Man Who Wasn't Dylan
True Grit (2010) - The Coens' grand western present
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
A Serious Man (2009) - One of the Coens' best; a philo-religious serio-comedy
Burn After Reading (2008) or, Idiocy 2008
Top 10: Best comedies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Top 10: The best big hit movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
The Big Lebowski (1998) - The stoner comedy to reign over all
1996 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Barton Fink (1991) or, The Writer's Hell
Cost: 7 mil. $
Box office: 60.6 mil. $
= Mega-hit
[Fargo was released 8 March (USA) and runs 98 minutes. Shooting took place in North Dakota and Minneapolis, including in Fargo and Brainerd, from January - March 1995. The film opened to a 730k $ first weekend in 36 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #6 and in 716 cinemas (different weeks) and grossed 24.6 mil. $ (40.6 % of the total gross). The film was nominated for 7 Oscars: It won for Best Screenplay and Best Actress (McDormand). It lost Supporting Actor (Macy) to Cuba Gooding Jr. for Jerry Maguire, Cinematography (Roger Deakins) to John Seale for The English Patient, Director to Anthony Minghella for The English Patient, Editing to The English Patient, - and Best Picture also to the much inferior epic, The English Patient. The film was also nominated for 4 Golden Globes, won 1/6 BAFTA noms, won Joel Coen the Best Director Prize in Cannes, was nominated for a César award (France's Oscar), won 6 Independent Spirit awards, 3 National Board of Review awards and many other honors. Kathy Bates directed a pilot for a Fargo-based TV-series with Edie Falco in 1997, which only aired in 2003. A successful TV-series executive produced by the Coens called Fargo, set in the same locale but in a different decade and with other characters, have been successful for 3 seasons (2014-17). IMDb-users have voted Fargo the original movie in to #161 on the site's Top 250 list, sitting between The Sixth Sense (1999) and The Deer Hunter (1978). The Coens returned with The Big Lebowski (1998), another masterpiece. McDormand returned in Primal Fear (1996). Fargo is certified fresh at 93 % with an 8.7 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Fargo?
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