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.

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

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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