Fargo

(Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, US 1996, 98 min., 35mm)

The Coen brothers’ mainstream breakthrough captivated audiences and marked their first major box-office success. Ranking highly on several critics’ Best Of lists for the 1990s, Fargo is pure Coen—dark, violent, irreverent, funny, and meticulously crafted. Films about small-town murders are a dime a dozen, but few are anything like this. Shooting in and around their native Minneapolis, the Coens approached the material with a keen eye for detail, right down to Frances McDormand’s spot-on “Minnesota nice” accent. Fargo is a film whose importance cannot be overstated, having been selected to the National Film Registry in its first year of eligibility.