Day #12 - Fargo

I realized something today.  I am a day behind on my blogs.  Today is the 13th and I am writing my 12th blog.  I assure you that I have watched at least 1 movie every day.  What I am finding is that I type too slow and write too much.  The watching of the movies isn't as time consuming as the blogging about them.  I realized something else.  I do have 8 Coen Brother movies, but 1 of them is the Big Lebowski and I will be reviewing and blogging about it live on Friday.  I started my marathon a day early.  I only have enough Coen Brother movies to last me through Wednesday night. 

No worries though.  I took my kids to see Inception this Sunday on top of watching Barton Fink.  Also Friday I watched Lars Von Trier's Dogville.  I can blog about either of them on Thursday as well as my regularly scheduled daily movie.  I have a few options for Thursday.  I think I am going to see a Rollings Stone 1972 Concert film that is being released into theaters for one night only.  I saw Shine a Light (the Martin Scorsese docu-concert) in 2008, and Gimme Shelter (the Albert Maysles docu-concert) is currently in my DVD queue. I am a bit of a Stones fan.  Or I was thinking about watching the Sam Rami directed "A Simple Plan" which was inspired by his friends and collaborators the Coen Brothers.  I guess we will see.

This is the first time I skipped a movie in the chronological pattern I have been adhering to.  The Hudsucker Proxy was released between Barton Fink and this film.  I like the Hudsucker Proxy, but I do consider it minor Coen and it is not in my DVD collection.

So I spent the first three paragraphs rambling on instead of getting right into the quintessential Coen Brother movie, Fargo.  Perhaps that is because I am not sure that I am going to bring anything new to the conversation about this movie.  It is near perfect.  It won the Best Picture Oscar in 1997 along with almost every other award it was nominated for.  I guess if you have been living under a rock for the past 13 years I will provide a brief rundown of the plot.

Jerry Lundegaard is a used car salesman that concocts a scheme to milk his father-in-law out of some money in order to invest in a parking lot.  This plan involves kidnapping and holding for ransom Jerry's wife.  Things go horribly wrong and swirl out of control.  The small town police get involved and begin to investigate the case.  Basically it can be boiled down to EVERY Coen Brother plot:
A person with good intentions comes across a bag of money and manage to get into situations that they are unable to resolve.

 Again, Roger Dekins is the man behind the camera.  Again the setting is as much of a character as any living person in the film.  Again the writing is sharp, witty, and spot on.  Again the performances are captivating and again the cast is filled out with Coen regulars. 

One of the things that the Coens are known for is the dissection of genre.  Or at least the refusal to pin-hole there films.  Fargo is no different.  It is a noir comedy set in the frigid landscape of North Dakota and Minnesota.

I honestly don't have a lot to spew about this movie.  More truthful, I don't have the time to write my full report about this movie.  I could talk or write about it for hours.  I am hesitant to declare a film a masterpiece, but I think it fits the bill.  The exciting thing is that it isn't even their best movie in my opinion.  That is still to come.  Tomorrow I will be skipping The Big Lebowski (waiting for the fest!) and watching "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"  But as for Fargo I give it another 5/5 stars.  For more information check out the link below for the trailer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB4PmbfG4bw