Ever notice that every blockbuster movie has the same fundamental pieces? A hero, a journey, some conflicts to muck it all up, a reward, and the hero returning home and everybody applauding his or...

Minnesota, 1987And Best Actor Goes to… The State of Minnesota It's a teensy bit of a cliché to say, "[Name of place] was like a character in this movie." That being said, Minnesota is definitely...

Main Character Shift At first, we think Jerry's the main character. The movie follows him as he plots his wife's kidnapping, hires the criminals to complete the task, and sees it all fall to pieces...

Dark Comedy, Neo-noir, Crime Drama Yeah, Fargo is a dark comedy—or at least plenty of people would call it that. In a way, though, it might be the movie's realism that makes it so darkly amusing....

The title Fargo has a nice, evocative sound to it. If the Coens had titled the movie Brainerd or Minneapolis it just wouldn't have been the same, even though more of the action takes place in those...

After Marge's catches Gaear stuffing Carl's body into the wood chipper, she arrests him and saves the day (well, sort of, considering how many people are dead), lectures him on the stupidity of com...

RYou can't jam a dead guy into a wood chipper and sneak away with a PG-13 rating. That's just not the way the MPAA rating system works. And there are plenty more instances of shocking violence: a s...