Top 100 Movies Of The 1990's: #16 Fargo
Box Office: $24.6 Million
Oscar Nominations: Best Picture, Best Director (Joel Coen), Best Actress (Frances McDormand), Best Supporting Actor (William H. Macy), Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing
Oscar Wins: Best Actress (Frances McDormand), Best Original Screenplay
MovieRankings.Net: 96/100
Available To Stream: FXNOW, Amazon Prime ($2), Hulu
My two favorite Coen Brothers movies are Fargo and No Country For Old Men. Both are deeply cynical movies about humanity. In Fargo, how evil these people are is masked by folksy accents and a bright white snowy landscape. But in Fargo, there is a slight glimmer of redemption and happiness. It's close but I think I like Fargo just a little bit more. Maybe that's why. In No Country, evil is a force that can not be stopped. In Fargo, people are selfish and greedy. Is this how the Coens perceive our society? Are they right?
Looking back, it's wild that Macy didn't win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. This was the year Cuba Gooding Jr. won for Jerry Maguire. Rod Tidwell is a great character but what are we doing here? Macy gives such a layered performance by keeping this thin facade of being a "nice guy" which is masking this selfish and greedy piece of shit, all the while playing the most incompetent criminal you'll find in movies. This whole plan was doomed from the start. Why take a car from your own lot? Why ask the mechanic you work with to help you find kidnappers? Jerry Lundegaard is the epitome of a desperate man doing desperate things.
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This was Frances McDormand's first Oscar. She's now one of only two woman ever who won three Best Actress Academy Awards (Katherine Hepburn is the other. She won 4!). Her portrayal of Marge is my favorite of her career. You don't even see her in the first half hour of the movie. But when she enters the movie, she takes it over.
I know a lot of people don't care for the stuff with Mike. But I think Marge needed to see what a liar Mike was to see that Jerry was not only capable but likely of also being a fraud. Just because someone looks pleasant and says nice things, doesn't make them a decent person.
The side characters in Fargo are all outstanding. Wade, Father-in-law is a perfect rich asshole. It's perfect casting with Steve Buscemi as Carl and Peter Stormare as Gaear. You see the boiling anger within Gaear as the movie keeps going. It all pays off with the wood chipper too.
It's a pretty short movie with a runtime of only 98 minutes. But the world is so vast with the location feeling so unique and rich because of the wide array of interesting people that it's not a surprise at all that FX made it a show. I like the Fargo show a lot but not nearly as much as the movie.
You have to appreciate a movie where so many problems would have been solved if not for a Cutless Ciera.
16. Fargo
17. Swingers
18. Reservoir Dogs
19. There's Something About Mary
20. Sleepers
21. Schindler's List
22. Rushmore
23. Fight Club
24. Saving Private Ryan
25. True Romance
26. Dumb & Dumber
27. Kingpin
28. Donnie Brasco
29. Heat
30. Terminator 2: Judgement Day
31. Rounders
32. Unforgiven
33. Trainspotting
34. The Game
35. Out Of Sight
36. Carlito's Way
37. Seven
38. L.A. Confidential
39. Speed
40. Gattaca
41. Misery
42. Tombstone
43. Ransom
44. Wayne's World
45. The Insider
46. Back To The Future Part III
47. A Bronx Tale
48. The People Vs. Larry Flynt
49. Eyes Wide Shut
50. The Sandlot
51. Happy Gilmore
52. Contact
53. The Green Mile
54. Man On The Moon
55. Boyz N The Hood
56. Grosse Pointe Blank
57. Independence Day
58. The Rainmaker
59. Go
60. The Firm
61. Magnolia
62. The Talented Mr. Ripley
63. Tommy Boy
64. The Usual Suspects
65. In The Line Of Fire
66. My Cousin Vinny
67. Awakenings
68. JFK
69. Toy Story
70. Home Alone
71. Jerry Maguire
72. Titanic
73. Billy Madison
74. Apollo 13
75. Braveheart
76. Edward Scissorhands
77. Cape Fear
78. The River Wild
79. What's Eating Gilbert Grape?
80. 12 Monkeys
81. Stir Of Echoes
82. Mission: Impossible
83. Total Recall
84. Quiz Show
85. For Love Of The Game
86. Being John Malkovich
87. Men In Black
88. Scream
89. Alive
90. Three Kings
91. Glengarry Glen Ross
92. Die Hard With A Vengeance
93. The Blair Witch Project
94. Twister
95. Dirty Work
96. Election
97. Tremors
98. Any Given Sunday
99. The Wedding Singer
100. Clerks