“The Blind Spot Series is a movie challenge created by Ryan McNeil at The Matinee. The goal is to watch one movie a month, over the course of one year. These should be films that you believe are essential viewings for every movie fan: they can be classics, cult films, modern masterpieces.” The series is currently being hosted by Sofia da Costa. Read more on her website Returning Videotapes.

“You’re a smooth smoothie, you know?”

For some reason, I always expected Fargo to be one of those heavy, depressing crime dramas. You know, the ones that end up making you feel heavy and depressed? The ones whose cinematic value you can appreciate, but almost need to force yourself to watch? Well, I have no idea how I got that impression either. The three Coen-brothers movies that I had previously seen gave me no reason to believe this. At any rate, Fargo is miles away from being that. In fact, it might be the most weirdly amusing story of violence I’ve seen in a movie so far.

Set in the town of Fargo, the film follows middle-aged car sales manager Jerry Lundegaard’s attempt at financial success. While his father-in-law is quite affluent, it is clear that his money is intended for his daughter and grandson only. In order to prove himself, Jerry has set up a deal to build a parking lot, but doesn’t have the money to finance it. He derives a plan to get his wife kidnapped and then use the ransom for his deal. But that plan goes horribly wrong as the two hired kidnappers end up killing three people, and with police chief Marge Gunderson on the case, neither Jerry nor the crooks stand much of a chance.

Another thing I expected from this movie was that it was told from Frances McDormand’s character Marge’s point-of-view, but in fact, she only appears in the movie after a third of the way. She is definitely a lead, but Fargo could be seen as more of an ensemble movie with William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi, Peter Stormare and pretty much all of the side characters sharing the spotlight. There isn’t one character that doesn’t stand out in some way – even the two prostitutes are hilarious for just those five minutes. Every single scene and every piece of dialogue and its delivery is absolute gold. And I’m saying this even though I’m one of the people who didn’t really like The Big Lebowski on first watch. Maybe that’s an advantage of adulthood: you can fully appreciate a Coen-brothers movie even if you’ve never seen it before.

But there’s more to Fargo than “just” great actors and quirky dialogue. It’s the script that keeps you guessing what’s going to happen next, and how the characters are going to act. Even though from the start, it’s pretty clear how this is going to end, you’re still on the edge of your seat – and chuckling at the same time. Could it get any better? The film also seems to represent the American mid-west very accurately. I’ve only been to Michigan, but from what I’ve heard people say and from the Minnesotans I’ve met, this is as close to a Minnesotan winter in the 1990s as it gets. From the set design to the costumes (the hats!), Fargo has this love to detail that I appreciate much more than the stilted artificiality of something like Hugo or to be honest, The Shape of Water. I’m sure it’s a tad more over-the-top and whimsical than reality in some ways, as all Coen-brothers movies do, but it still has that solid base of genuineness.

I would also like to note that this movie has some of the best pacing I’ve seen for a while now. That sharp 90 minute runtime is spot-on and there isn’t a minute too little or too much in here. There’s so much else one could dive into; the gorgeous cinematography (marry me, Roger Deakins), the amazing score and so on. But I think that it suffices to say this movie is one hell of a smooth smoothie.