This was my first time watching this, and I’m not sure why (given I’ve loved every other film the Coen Brothers have done). It’s brilliant.

I sometimes forget that people in Minnesota actually talk like people in Minnesota. It’s such an odd accent, an odd set of mannerisms, and it seems somehow out of place in the US. They played up the Dutch-ness a little here, but it still feels very local.

Is there any dispute that Frances McDormand steals the show in this film? It’s such an understated, brilliant performance - the slow drive in the penultimate scene is powerful because of a split second, and it’s masterful acting.

Not that the supporting cast is bad - Peter Stormare is suitably creepy, William H. Macy is laughable to the point of tragedy, and Steve Buscemi is Steve Buscemi - he rarely misses, and he doesn’t here.

It’s only around now that I’m starting to see quite how tied up Carter Burwell is in the Coen Brothers’ world - those grand orchestral notes, the sombre minor tone… they keep cropping up, again and again. It feels like a thread through their work, which is nice. (The one exception to this, although Burwell still scored it, is True Grit, which has more of a Western feel to it. But that’s understandable, given the subject matter.)

This feels like an epic packed into a few disparate settings, a lot of snow, and ninety minutes. There’s this “wow” feeling that you don’t usually get from films as succinct and small as this.

I can see myself going on a Coens binge soon.