The 10 Best Frances McDormand Performances of All Time
Frances McDormand is one of those performers who understands what it means to be human. The two-time Academy Award winner (and seven-time nominee) is a favorite when it comes to arthouse, independent, and off-beat films, and it's because she knows how to tap into the innermost workings of a character. Whether it's a darkly comedic performance like Fargo or a straight drama like her most recent Oscar win for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, McDormand makes it her own.
Now the important question—how do you rank them? We put our heads together and identified what we believe to be the most iconic of McDormand's filmography, and then we put them in order from greatest to, um, best greatest. Whether she's keeping rockstars in check or escaping a husband hellbent on killing her, Frances McDormand performances all have something in common: they're going to force you to keep watching.
Those outside the Academy may have snubbed the film about a mother who uses three giant billboards to set a fire under a town’s ass after her murdered daughter’s case goes cold, but McDormand’s performance is an undeniable force. In the film, McDormand channels a sense of loss and cold rage that poignantly captures a mother scorned. The performance earned her a second Oscar and further acclaim as one of the greatest actresses of her generation. — Justin Kirkland
Whimsical and pastel-colored, Wes Anderson’s 2012 comedy Moonrise Kingdom is the love story of young runaway pen pals Suzy Bishop and Sam Shakusky. In it, Frances McDormand plays Laura Bishop, Suzy’s exhausted mother who, along with navigating her strained marriage to Walt (Bill Murray) and taking care of her three young sons, must now also go out searching for her daughter. Though her role is supporting, McDormand brings both humor and weariness to every line in her role as the matriarch of the Bishop family. Her performance fits perfectly into the quirky world of Wes Anderson, but also resonates profoundly with mothers everywhere. —Lauren Kranc
In this black comedy that polarized critics, McDormand plays Linda Litzke, a fitness club employee determined to get plastic surgery to improve her appearance and meet better guys. "I've gotten about as far as this body can take me," she says with a tragic certainty. Though the film wasn’t her best effort with the Coens as a whole, McDormand’s performance offers what she can do best: a sincere blend of heart wrenching comedy, with a loving understanding of the contradictions and absurdities of what it means to be human. — Matt Miller
Another Oscar nominated performance for McDormand, the stalwart actress flexes her skill set here, capturing the devastation of abuse and how its ramifications permeate far beyond a singular relationship. Playing a woman named Mrs. Pell, her own abusive relationship puts her in an even more precarious spot when fear for her husband, the town’s deputy sheriff, prohibits her from coming forward with information about the Ku Klux Klan (muddled with members of law enforcement) and its involvement in the murder of three civil rights workers. — Justin Kirkland
McDormand never got enough credit for her flinty turn as Sara in Wonder Boys, the chancellor of a remote Pennsylvania liberal arts school. Unhappily married to the head of the English department, she begins an affair with Grady Tripp (Michael Douglas), a washed-up literary phenom wasting away as an English professor while suffering from writer’s block. When Sara discovers her surprise pregnancy, it throws her casual dalliance with Grady into sharp relief. McDormand is spectacular in the role, vividly capturing the dilemma of a successful woman dissatisfied in midlife, ready to blow it all up and start over. —Adrienne Westenfeld
Nomadland is a tenderhearted film about the American experiment, in which the landscape is as much a character as any person walking through the frame. As Fern, a widowed retiree living a new life on the open road, McDormand is Nomadland's anchor. From floating naked in a river to making a ten gallon bucket into a makeshift toilet, McDormand imbues Fern’s moments alone with radical depth. Fern’s hardships bring Nomadland back down to earth, and only McDormand could turn in a performance whose quiet compassion is so revolutionary. —Adrienne Westenfeld
Toward the beginning of Cameron Crowe’s autobiographical masterpiece, Almost Famous, 15-year-old William Miller gets dropped off at a Black Sabbath concert by his intensely loving yet overprotective mother, Elaine (Frances McDormand). As he walks away into a crowd of long-haired hippies with beers in their hands, Elaine passionately shouts, “Don’t take drugs!” It’s an iconic line.
There’s just something about the way McDormand says it, like she can’t help it—like it’s coming from the depths of her soul. Elaine is more than a worried mother; she’s a force of nature, unafraid to put a rockstar in his place, yet trusting the honest goodness of the son she raised. It’s McDormand at her best (and it earned her an Oscar nod). —Anna Grace Lee
Listing off vaccines, hurriedly drenching white bread in yellow mustard, McDormand is the fast-talking baby expert piling mommy anxiety onto the already-stressed new parents of a kidnapped child. It’s a small role, but unforgettable, even if it’s only for her reaction to seeing the baby for the first time: Hands slapped on her face, big eyes oozing love through her fingers. “He’s an angel sent straight from heaven.” Then a quick serious turn: “You’re going to send him to Arizona State.” — Matt Miller
Blood Simple is so much more important than it gets credit for. On top of being the Coen Brothers’ first film, it’s also McDormand’s first mainstream film. She plays Abby in the thriller about a vengeful husband who decides the appropriate punishment for infidelity is, well, death. The film is a thrill from start to finish, with twists and turns all the way to the final moments. It also solidified McDormand as a bonafide star and a performer whose career would only continue to grow for the next 40 years. — Justin Kirkland
Fargo is in so many ways the only proof point you need to realize that McDormand is a god-tier level actress. Her role as Marge Gunderson, a pregnant Minnesota officer solving a grisly murder, could have easily gone in the way of camp, but McDormand brought a deep Minnesota accent and a specific brand of Midwestern to the woman without ever losing her humanity. The first of McDormand’s two Academy Award wins, Fargo will go down as the performance that certifies McDormand’s keen ability to bring nuance to absurdity. — Justin Kirkland
The 10 Best Frances McDormand Performances of All Time
Frances McDormand is one of those performers who understands what it means to be human. The two-time Academy Award winner (and seven-time nominee) is a favorite when it comes to arthouse, independent, and off-beat films, and it's because she knows how to tap into the innermost workings of a character. Whether it's a darkly comedic performance like Fargo or a straight drama like her most recent Oscar win for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, McDormand makes it her own.
Now the important question—how do you rank them? We put our heads together and identified what we believe to be the most iconic of McDormand's filmography, and then we put them in order from greatest to, um, best greatest. Whether she's keeping rockstars in check or escaping a husband hellbent on killing her, Frances McDormand performances all have something in common: they're going to force you to keep watching.
Here's to the woman who reminds us there's more to life than a little money, ya know?
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