The plot follows Dot, a very pleasant homemaker living in Minnesota but after a fracas at a school board meeting where she genuinely accidentally assaults a cop she is arrested. While she is soon out on bail Dot is very antsy about being arrested. Days later she is kidnapped, or at least attempted to be. It turns out, that Dot has not always been Dot but used to be Nadine, married to Roy Tillman, a sheriff in a nearby county and an absolute maniac. Roy is corrupt, violent and puffed up with religious zealotry. Nadine escaped this terrible man and became Dot, meeting a very gentle and kind man, marrying him and having a child, Scotty. Alongside these central characters, we have Dot’s husband Wayne Lyon, her mother-in-law Lorraine Lyon who is CEO of the largest debt collection agency in the country, Deputy Indira Olmstead and State Trooper Witt Farr, as well as Roy’s son Gator. Finally, there is the sinister, mysterious, murderous Ole Munch.

On The Screen

The show revolves around two central performances; Juno Temple as Nadine/Dot and Jon Hamm as Roy Tillman. Temple manages to capture both the gentle manner and basic decency of the Minnesota mom and the unstoppable force of someone who has survived a harrowing ordeal and won’t go back. Likewise Hamm has two existences as Roy Tillman – the public persona of no-nonsense tough but fair sheriff, with his aww shucks charm, and a brutal and corrupt man justifying his actions with self-serving Bible verses.

Another standout performance is Jennifer Jason Leigh as Lorraine Lyon (I have been trying to perfect her contemptuous drawl for weeks), Nadine/Dot’s mother-in-law billionaire.

The Characters

Dot/Nadine

Dot very early on is described by someone as a tiger and this is an apt description. She fights fiercely at every opportunity – in the course of the show, she sets people on fire, hits them with hammers, chokes them with chains, electrocutes them and more. She is also an extremely caring and loving mother, wife and person. The amount of time we see Dot baking and cooking in this season almost makes it a cooking show.

Roy Tillman

Domestic abuse, up to and including murder, is very present this season, Tillman is violent to all three of his wives that we see (and others). Nadine ran from Tillman because of this violence. He feels entirely justified in this, quoting all manner of verses from the Bible to support the horror he puts women through. The casting of Jon Hamm is an interesting one, he is the sheriff, a public and political figure, he can put his face on a campaign billboard and look impressive. Roy Tillman is the latest in a long line of terrifying Fargo villains and Tillman might be the scariest since season one’s Lorne Malvo. He dishes out Old Testament punishment to those he feels have done wrong – rarely involving a trial – is as staggeringly corrupt as to be selling police weapons and equipment to far-right militias, and does whatever he wants. He has a large group of henchmen made up of deputies and thugs who will murder, threaten and kidnap for him. So sure of his own power when the FBI arrive to tell him they know of all of his crimes he barely registers it.

The Rest

As with every season of Fargo, it has its share of odd, puzzling characters. Danish Graves, Lorraine’s besuited lawyer whose eyepatch always matches his outfit, Roy’s son. Gator, who is utterly incompetently childish and so far out of his depth he will soon be surfacing on the other side of the world. And then there is Indira’s husband, now for someone who isn’t violent or a terrible criminal he has to be one of the most unlikeable characters of all time. While Indira is out working as a cop and desperately manages their crushing debt, he is intent on becoming a golf pro, spending thousands on equipment and not looking for work. Ole Munch, it’s hard to know what to say about him, like the UFOs in Fargo season 2 or the Heaven bowling alley in season 3 he might be something in a more supernatural bent. Ole Munch looks bizarre and talks in a ludicrous manner of quasi-philosophical rhetoric, answering every reasonable question with things like “when a man digs a grave, he must fill it, otherwise it is just a hole”. He is a creepy murdering criminal but is a very different way to Roy and his cronies.

The Show

The show spirals in and out of Dot’s safety, her past and present, and those around her given choices about what they will do. Will the police deputy and state trooper look the other way for an easy life? Will Lorraine Lyon back her daughter-in-law or destroy her? Perhaps the key concept in the show is debt – Roy feels Dot/Nadine has a debt to him, one that he cannot forget, Lorraine is literally a billionaire manager of debt, her lawyer Danish Graves has a ledger of debts to call in to get things done and she calls in all manner of political favours. Indira is drowning in debt while her useless husband complains about how she is not fulfilling her obligations to him as a wife. And then there is Ole Munch – a personification of debt, something he took on and will insist all debts are paid.

Season 5 is one of the best seasons of the show and just an all around fantastic tv show.

Rating: (4.5 / 5)

Also Read: True Crimes, Real Lives: Exploring the Ethics of the Sub-Genre

The post Review: Fargo Season 5 appeared first on Big Picture Film Club.

The Seasons

Essentially none of the characters from the original film appears in the tv show although there are some connections. The seasons all take place in that broad area of America and all have a similar feel to them – crime, dark comedy and mistakes that lead to terrible consequences. One of it’s best ideas has been that each season is a different story with different characters set in different time periods. Season 1 is set in 2006 and follows sad sack insurance salesman Lester Nygaard (Martin Freeman), insane but incredibly effective wandering hitman Lorne Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton), extremely competent Sheriff’s Deputy Molly Salverson (Allison Tolman)and extremely incompetent police officer Gus Grimly (Colin Hanks). The season runs through murder, false identities, blackmail, shoot-outs and more.

Season 2 travels back in time to 1979 when a murder spree in a waffle shop, possible UFO sightings and a car accident sparks a turf war between rival crime syndicates.

Season 3 is set in 2010 and this time the main drama is around two brothers, Emmit and Ray Stussy (both played by Ewan McGregor), Ray’s girlfriend Nikki Swango, sort-of police chief Gloria Burgle and V.M Varga a deeply sinister individual who uses a dodgy loan to take over Emmit Stussy’s business.

Season 4 is set in 1950 and mainly concerns two organised crime outfits in Kansas City, and as is tradition to ensure peace between such organisations each leader has one of their children raised by the other organisation, acting as a hostage. The fact that this never works, as is demonstrated in a montage of failed agreements, does nothing to curtail the tradition. Also of importance are Oraetta Mayflower a sociopathic nurse who seems to take pleasure in killing her patients and a local funeral home in debt to one of the crime families.

Chance Encounters, Mistakes & Wrong Place, Wrong Time

As with the movie, Fargo the tv show focuses a lot on people getting caught up in things by accident. Season 3 revolves around what was supposed to be a simple robbery but because the criminal forgets the address and goes to the wrong house it gets far worse. Season 2 hinges on a beautician hitting a mobster with her car and the confusion when her butcher husband is thought to be a hitman who uses the name “The Butcher”. In season 1 people cross paths again and again, with these chance encounters proving hugely important.

Odd Stories & Impossible Characters

Again in keeping with the film the tv show does not focus relentlessly on the plot. There are numerous scenes and stories that do not serve to further the plot (but perhaps are connected in thematic ways) that are there to explore characters and bring the world to life. Season 3 spends a lot of time on the life of the “wrong” Stussy, who just got caught up in things because he shared the name of the target, it turns out he used to be a sci-fi writer and much time is spent examining this including a cartoon scene detailing one of his stories. Season 2 has repeated UFO sightings that occur at key moments.

A feature in the Coens work is people who perhaps are more than what they seem. Season 3 features a character very much hinted to be some manner of divine/supernatural being offering aid to the just and punishment to the wicked. Both Lorne Malvo and Vargo sometimes seem to be something more than just a bad guy, their effectiveness, odd manner and at times omniscience in what is going on and what will happen.

Villains

The show has undeniably created a raft of brilliant villains. Lorne Malvo from Season 1 is one of the greatest villains in all of film and television, a hitman who also seemingly delights in causing chaos and upset wherever he goes. He is ten steps ahead of everyone and even when arrested seems to wriggle free. At one point Malvo is seen as a practising dentist and it turns out he has spent months befriending a fellow dentist to find his witness protection brother. Then there are the pair of hitmen sent by the other side Mr Wrench and Mr Numbers, very effective with a somewhat dysfunctional friendship (one of these deadly hitmen laments the lack of a public library in the town).

Season 2 has a collection of criminals but perhaps the standout is Mike Milligan, a mob enforcer sent to spearhead the takeover of new territory, an extremely eloquent and articulate individual who can easily slip from charming friendliness to sinister threats.

Season 3 has V M Varga, a truly horrific villain in every way shape and form. An unpleasant and intimidating figure who bullies all those around him, claiming to be middle-management of whatever crime organisation he represents but actually much more than that. A man replete with useful stories and anecdotes to illustrate his points and happy to order brutal violence.

Season 4 is a little more complicated in that most of the characters are active criminals and it becomes a case of pointing out that some are worse than others, with Gaetano Fadda being the most brutal.

Of course, these are the obvious villains, those who orchestrate murder and crime, but every season shows those aren’t the only people you need to worry about. The show is full of the crimes of mundane people – people who murder their spouses, siblings who betray each other, ordinary people in a moment of madness do something they shouldn’t do and the unexpected duplicity of those people put their trust in.

Fargo is coming back for a fifth season and can only imagine it’s going to be another rambling odd tale of murder, revenge and coincidence.

Also Read: Making A Coen Brothers Film

Your contribution to Big Picture Film Club will allow us to continue to produce content. No matter the amount your contributions are greatly appreciated.

The post Fargo: A Movie and TV Masterpiece appeared first on Big Picture Film Club.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

McDormand’s second Oscar came for playing bereaved mother Mildred in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Mildred’s daughter was raped and murdered and no arrests have yet been made – in an effort to keep the crime in the spotlight Mildred pays for three billboards with a message to the police chief. Mildred already seems to have been a formidable and perhaps unpopular figure before this tragedy but her abrasive plan seems to alienate most of the town. As well as the police her wrath falls on the local priest, a dentist, high school students and more. Mildred is consumed with guilt about what happened to her daughter and when not focusing the resulting anger on herself it is cast outward.

Burn After Reading

This is a more traditional comedic outing for McDormand than some of her roles. Burn After Reading is an odd but enjoyable film and like many Coen Brothers films it revolves around simple mistakes that lead to bigger consequences. McDormand plays Linda Litzke a woman working at a gym and is obsessed with getting cosmetic surgery so she can look younger. When what seems to be classified CIA material comes into her possession Linda and the absolutely hapless Chad try their hands at blackmail. Linda is also in a new romantic relationship with George Clooney’s serial cheater Harry Pfaffer and these two elements of her life intertwine nicely. Her best moments come from acting opposite Richard Jenkins, her boss at the gym who is clearly besotted with her but she is not interested – her declaration that Jenkins’ character’s former job as an Orthodox priest “well, jeez that’s a good job!” always amuses me.

Good Omens

For this TV show, McDormand was cast as God – who is the narrator of the show, which is quite a role.

Almost Famous

Despite not being the central character by any means McDormand’s performance as Elaine Miller is perhaps the most memorable in Almost Famous, in which her high school-age son goes off with a rock band as a music journalist and she has trouble dealing with this. What is really interesting is that Elaine’s objections to this are not what you expect – she is a very unusual woman, especially by the standards of 1969. Her objections to rock n roll seem to stem from a questioning of the artistic and intellectual value of this music, when Russell the charismatic frontman of the band tries to charm Elaine he is undone within seconds by her forceful and articulate attitude urging him to be better and do better.

Raising Arizona

A small role but McDormand is brilliant. After H.I. and Ed kidnap a baby when they learn they can’t have children they are paid a visit by H.I.’s boss Glen and his wife Dot – played by McDormand. Dot is an over-the-top incredibly excitable parent who jackknifes from proclamations of the baby’s angelic qualities to dire warnings of future problems, with every sentence interrupted by her shouting at her children to behave.

Fargo

Quite probably this is the role McDormand will be most remembered for and rightly so. She won an Oscar for playing Marge Gunderson, the heavily pregnant police chief who exudes competence, decency and kindness. Gunderson is not portrayed as “kick-ass” and is actually very gentle throughout but you never doubt she is more than capable at her job. You do worry about the inevitable confrontation between Gunderson and the kidnappers but when that happens she easily apprehends the remaining kidnapper. Two scenes stand out in particular, first the absolutely bizarre scene where Gunderson meets up with an old school friend for dinner who breaks down talking about his dead wife (who we later learn isn’t dead). The second at the end of the film when she finds one kidnapper feeding another into a wood chipper and the ride back to the station with a short monologue about what he did for “a little bit of money”. The last thing to mention is the asbolutely adorable relationship between Marge and her husband Norm, they are a lovely, supportive couple, seemingly always in each other’s thoughts by the small acts of kindness they do for one another. Whilst Marge is dealing with kidnapping and murder Norm is working on his duck painting for a postage stamp competition and because it’s important to Norm it’s important to Marge (incidentally, the postage stamp duck painting competition is real and a Big Deal to some people).

What Next?

So McDormand just won her third Oscar and if we were to examine the trajectory of her career it would seem she still has many great performances to give. Currently in postproduction is Macbeth, in which she plays Lady Macbeth and is another Coen Brothers film which has Oscar contender written all over it.

Also Read: Making A Coen Brothers Film

Your contribution to Big Picture Film Club will allow us to continue to produce content. No matter the amount your contributions are greatly appreciated.

The post The Best Performances of Frances McDormand appeared first on Big Picture Film Club.

The Typical Coen Brothers Film…

To be blunt there is no typical Coen Brothers film, they move from knockabout comedy to incredibly tense thrillers – genre seems to mean nothing to them and is certainly no predictor of quality – they’re as comfortable making stoner comedies as gangster films. It is genuinely astounding that it is the same people who made O’ Brother Where Art Thou? as No Country For Old Men. Other directors also play with genre – Quentin Tarantino for example – but whether it’s a revenge thriller or western they are still distinctly a Tarantino film. The Coen Brothers go beyond that and I would argue that without any prior knowledge no one would suspect Raising Arizona and Miller’s Crossing were made by the same people. Looking at their work I split their films into three categories.

The Violent

These films are tense. No Country For Old Men is a lesson in tension, what should have been an idle bit of chit chat in a petrol station became perhaps the standout scene of this Oscar-winning film. And what was causing the tension? The outcome of a coin toss. No violence, no guns, and only the barest suggestion of threat and you can’t take your eyes off the screen. That said, they are a dab hand with actual violence as well with deftly choreographed scenes of fighting in No Country For Old Men, True Grit and Miller’s Crossing.

The Funny

Not only are the Coen Brothers very funny they can do different types of humour. One of the funniest scenes of recent years is the now legendary back and forth in Hail Caesar! of a director trying to coach an actor into saying a line the right way – so much is put into just the two characters repeating that line at each other. They also create fictional porn films where the Dude goes bowling with a Valkyrie in what might be best the dream sequence ever filmed. It is safe to say they have comedic range.

The Tragic

When they want to the Coen Brothers can make you sad. A Serious Man is one of the most tragic films I have ever seen as you watch everything good in a man’s life being drained away and how he struggles to still do the right thing. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to bring myself to watch Inside Llewyn Davis again as you see an extremely talented person just knocked around by life, his fortunes so low he has no winter coat for the freezing cold New York.

The Perfect Coen Brothers Film

They have at least one film that brings these three things together perfectly and that is Fargo. The film that won Frances McDormand her first Oscar, cemented a stereotype of North Dakota and inexorably linked Steve Buscemi to the idea of being ground up in a wood chipper. The film is funny, tragic and violent and does it all in less than 100 minutes. The story of Jerry Lundegaard hiring perhaps not the best criminals to fake kidnap his wife so he get the ransom from her extremely wealthy father is riveting from the first scene.

The tension that the viewer has for Marge Gunderson, the heavily pregnant cop who is drawn into the crime is immense and grows over time, what will happen in the inevitable showdown between cop and criminal? The criminals are perhaps more violent and conspicuous than Jerry hoped for, leaving a trail of bodies behind them, ending of course with one of them killing his partner in a famously gruesome way. As for tragedy – Jerry Lundegaard may be the most pathetic figure in cinema history with failure and idiocy dogging his every move and his inaction and incompetence only growing as his plan spirals out of control. Then there is the bizarre meeting between Marge and an old school acquaintance, of no relevance whatsoever to the plot, but with brilliant performances from both actors.

As for comedy…well it’s certainly very dark comedy, a lot coming from the very pleasant and smalltown people who find themselves as everyday characters surrounded by murder and violence. That said, Marge, who is as pleasant and smalltown as any of them is also shown to be extremely determined and capable so maybe don’t underestimate them.

The Coen Brothers – what’s next?

Of course, their real genius is that usually their films contain all three of things in varying amounts. According to IMDb their next film is Macbeth and really I don’t know what to expect – a bloodsoaked rampage, a comedy of errors or the saddest portrayal of the Scottish Play ever made.

Also Read: The Anatomy of a Christopher Nolan Film

The post Making A Coen Brothers Film appeared first on Big Picture Film Club.