Fargo remains gripping decades later not just for its craft and darkly comic story but for the way it turns myth-making – storytelling and deception – into its central preoccupation.

The North Dakota setting is icily evocative, the supporting characters perfectly pitched (remember Marge's old flame Mike Yanagita?), while the air of sadness that blankets the film like snow adds genuine profundity.

Its brilliance [lies] in making the forces of law and order look as interesting and funny as the bad guys.

The dialogue is as good as it can get, funny because it is so accurate and true -- and as ordinary as the chat we have with the neighbor as we shovel the sidewalk.