11 Comments
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Daniel Solow's avatar

I thought the point was that Mike's deception allows Marge to realize that Jerry was also deceiving her.

Greg Pratt's avatar

Thank you! My favorite set of directors and this is my favorite movie. This analysis was so entertaining and thought-provoking exemplary of what creative nonfiction

Scout Drinkhouse's avatar

Awesome article! I appreciate that it was in-depth but still refined in its focus. I love this movie, but I never quite Got what the Mike scene was about; I was totally just willing to roll with it as a weird one-off scene with a weird on-off character like you get in Lebowski. Your assessment of language solidified another layer of the film for me.

Danny Sullivan's avatar

Thanks so much!

Fun and Prophet's avatar

Such a movie. I remember running it in awe frame by frame through the final(?), bullfight-rhythm scene of capture.

Literally epic-- isn't there a Paul Bunyan cameo?

Danny Sullivan's avatar

Several Bunyan cameos, first normal, then ominous, then restored to normal. There's a lot of repeated but modified imagery in Fargo, like Buscemi's two trips through the toll booth

Fun and Prophet's avatar

Any chance the Coens' Jewish community exposed them to the Russian (Orthodox) ideas of toll houses in the afterlife? Buschemi's character exhibits the sense of already being in hell or limbo.

Anyway, much appreciation for the fruits of your close study of this film!

Free Movie Ideas's avatar

🔥

Quiara Vasquez's avatar

Man, I really gotta rewatch "Fargo" (with your points in mind of course) to wash the badness of "Honey Don't!" out of my mouth, so to speak...

Danny Sullivan's avatar

LOL I haven't seen Honey Don't or even Drive Away Dolls still. Can't say I've heard good things but is it that bad?

Quiara Vasquez's avatar

I legitimately cannot imagine anybody in the world deriving enjoyment from anything in this movie other than the lesbian sex, but the film's third-act twist is surely going to alienate any lesbian/feminist audience this film would have. Also it should clearly be an actual period piece instead of this quasi-'70s thing. (There's a moment where some kids are playing a video game that looks like it was made in Scratch Jr... it was very distracting lol.) Margaret Qualley definitely serves lewks though.

Hilarious that Ethan's wife talked him into writing TWO lesbian capers. Half expecting the next film of theirs to be called TISHA CROOK: HUSBAND POISONER!