Courtesy
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.
Oh, what a lovely film. I was almost hugging myself while I watched it. Almost Famous is funny and touching in so many different ways. It s the story of a 15-year-old kid, smart and terrifyingly earnest, who through luck and pluck gets assigned by Rolling Stone magazine to do a profile of a rising rock band. The magazine has no idea he s 15. Clutching his pencil and his notebook like talismans, phoning a veteran critic for advice, he plunges into the experience that will make and shape him. It s as if Huckleberry Finn came back to life in the 1970s, and instead of taking a raft down the Mississippi, got on the bus with the band.