The Cohen Brothers masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (30 November 2006)

Set against the white canvas, Fargo is one of those rare films that comes along once in a decade. Arguabley the best film of the nineties, this gem gets better with repeated viewing like most Cohen brothers films pre Ladykillers. The acting is superb, the cast perfectly picked. Some defining roles in the careers of Steve Buschemi, Peter Stormaire and William H. Macy.
The serpentine plot is just one of the outstanding facets of this film, the cinematography set against the white canvas of the Minnesotta winter, creates a lonely, sad, isolated feeling. Isolation in general is a major theme in this film, as well as the distances between people, the lack of communication, lies and deception that can be humanity at its worst. In fact very few people in this film are not total degenerates. The Cohen brothers are clearly expressing our existential despair through black humor and they do it like no one else when they have all cylinders firing as they do in Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, The Big Lebowski, Barton Fink, and Millers Crossing.