Staff from your Monroe County Public Library recommend some of their favorites from the collection.
WHAT: “Fargo” (1996)
WHY: The Coen brothers have made a lot of excellent movies and “The Big Lebowski” is the cult classic everyone loves to quote; but for my money, “Fargo” is their best work. It’s the story of sad sack Jerry Lundegard (William H. Macy) and his idiot plan to have his own wife kidnapped to raise ransom money from his wealthy father-in-law. Everything goes wrong for him, especially when cop Marge Gunderson (the magnificent Frances McDormand, who won an Oscar for her role) is on the case. The writing is brilliant — there’s a line from Fargo that applies to almost any situation in life. And even if the plot seems initially cartoonish, you wind up invested in these characters and caring about who will survive this mess — and how. Almost 30 years after it first blew me away in a theater, I’m still thinking about this movie. The TV anthology series it inspired is also pretty good — but it wouldn’t exist without the original text.
WHERE: This is available as a DVD from the Monroe County library.
HOW: You can browse and request DVDs online by logging in to your account at keyslibraries.org. To view our collection of streaming movies and TV, go to kanopy.com/keyslibraries and set up an account with your library card. If you don’t have a card, you can visit your local branch or register online to get one. Questions? info@keyslibraries.org.
RECOMMENDED BY: Nancy Klingener, community affairs manager
See previous Reel Recs at keyslibraries.org/reel-recs.
