page_title: Fargo (film)
section_title: Critical response
hierarchical_section_title: Fargo (film) / Reception / Critical response
caption_attribution_description: English: Frances McDormand (cropped)
context_page_description: Fargo is a 1996 British-American black comedy crime thriller film written, produced and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. Frances McDormand stars as Marge Gunderson, a pregnant Minnesota police chief investigating roadside homicides that ensue after a desperate car salesman hires two criminals to kidnap his wife in order to extort a hefty ransom from his wealthy father-in-law. The film was an international co-production between the United States and United Kingdom.
  Fargo premiered at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, where Joel Coen won the festival's Prix de la mise en scène and the film was nominated for the Palme d'Or. A critical and commercial success, Fargo received seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. McDormand received the Academy Award for Best Actress and the Coens won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
  The film was selected in 2006 for preservation in the National Film Registry of the United States by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant"—one of only six films so designated in its first year of eligibility.
context_section_description: Fargo holds a 93% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 92 reviews, with an average rating of 8.68/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Violent, quirky, and darkly funny, Fargo delivers an original crime story and a wonderful performance by McDormand". The film scores 85 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 24 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".
  Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "B+" on a scale of A+ to F.
  Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert both ranked Fargo as the best film of 1996. Ebert called it "one of the best films I've ever seen", adding that "films like Fargo are why I love the movies". He later ranked it fourth on his list of the best films of the 1990s.
  Fargo was ranked 84th on the American Film Institute's "100 Years...100 Movies" list in 1998 (although it was removed from the 2007 version) and 93rd on "AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs" list. The Marge Gunderson character was ranked 33rd on "AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains".
  In 2010, the Independent Film & Television Alliance selected the film as one of its "30 Most Significant Independent Films" of the last 30 years.
caption: Frances McDormand's performance garnered widespread critical acclaim and earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress.
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