What It's About:

Hapless car salesman Jerry Lundegaard (Macy) has financial problems, which can only be fixed if wealthy father-in-law Wade Gustafson (Harve Presnell) opens his wallet. Unfortunately, Wade treats Jerry with thinly disguised contempt, so Jerry impulsively hires two hardened criminals (Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare) to fake a kidnapping of his wife, promising to share the ransom when Wade inevitably pays up. Everything goes wrong from there, but folksy investigator Marge Gunderson (McDormand) is soon on-hand to sort things out.

Why I Love It:

The Coen Brothers' crowning achievement, this twisted black comedy convulses us one minute, horrifies us the next. While satirizing the distinctive accents and conventions of North Dakotans, the movie's gruesome crime gone awry places us squarely in the lower depths of depravity. Only the Coens could take us there and bring us back so entertainingly. Macy is superb as the pathetic, cornered Jerry, Buscemi never better as a low-life kidnapper. But McDormand steals the picture as unflappable trooper Marge. No surprise that she (and the picture) took home Oscars.