My Favorite Actors - Frances McDormand

I thought it would be fun to start a new series highlighting some of my favorite actors. I don't have any set number of actors to discuss or a schedule for publishing, so this will probably be an intermittent and ongoing series of posts. 

For the first entry, I didn't really think twice as Frances McDormand has been on my mind a lot lately. I came to the conclusion that she has slowly and steadily become my favorite actress. Over the last 25 years or so, I probably could have named three or four different actresses for that title, but McDormand has just continued to impress me where the others have fallen to the wayside. 

As I sit here writing, she's only about a week removed from winning her third Best Actress Oscar - this time for her magnificent portrayal of Fern in Nomadland - and, in a rare exception for me, I agree completely with the Academy on not only this most recent award, but both of her previous wins, as well. As Fern, McDormand shined by giving a subtle, reserved performance in a mostly quiet, introspective film. There's really nothing flashy about Nomadland or her performance, but both work tremendously well. The film was one of my favorites of last year and McDormand's performance was a big part of the appeal - she's in nearly every scene and is fully captivating, even when doing mundane tasks like repairing a cargo van or working at an Amazon warehouse. McDormand just commands the screen like few other actors - male or female - can. 

And I'll be honest with you, I wasn't really looking forward to Nomadland. The plot synopsis and trailer didn't do much for me, but I wanted to see what McDormand would do for her follow-up to her other recent Best Actress Oscar win, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri from 2017. In that film, as Mildred, she plays a completely different character than Fern, but does it equally well. Mildred is an anguished, pissed off, and desperate mother of a murdered daughter who takes on the local sheriff's department when they don't produce the results she's looking for. She's fiery and explosive - literally in some scenes - and again commands the screen, even when sharing scenes with people like Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell who are used to stealing scenes from their co-stars. Three Billboards was a movie that I was eagerly anticipating and it didn't let me down. It was easily among my Top 2 or 3 films from a very strong year.

McDormand's first Best Actress Oscar came for what might still be her signature role, as Marge Gunderson in Joel and Ethan Coen's magnificent dark comedy Fargo. Marge, or Margie to her loving husband, is a sweet, caring, and good-natured expectant mother who also happens to be an intelligent, shrewd, and fearless police officer who won't let morning sickness or swollen ankles keep her from exposing conspiracies or apprehending violent sociopaths. Marge's genuine, bright smile and "aw shucks" demeanor can flip to serious and in charge in an instant and McDormand plays both sides of the character with a natural, composed skill that would foreshadow those kinds of impressive performances to come over the next 25 years. 

If those three performances and films comprised the entirety of her career, McDormand would still rank high among my favorite recent performers, but thankfully that's not the case. She's been working steadily since her feature film debut in Blood Simple in 1984. She met Joel Coen during the audition process and they started dating and were married later in the same year. They've been together ever since - one of the rare instances of a Hollywood power couple thriving for so long - and McDormand has appeared in about half of the Coen brothers's films, sometimes in tiny, uncredited roles and sometimes in co-lead, supporting, or lead (like in Fargo) roles. She's memorably whacky and zany in Raising Arizona as Holly Hunter's overbearing and baby obsessed sister, Dot. Dot is the kind of person who's fun to watch in a movie, but who would drive you absolutely nuts if you knew her in real life. In The Man Who Wasn't There, McDormand played Doris, the accomplice and victim of several different schemes that zig-zag through the byzantine plot. With the period costumes, makeup, and black and white photography, McDormand really looked like an Old Hollywood movie star, like she would have been perfectly comfortable in roles played by Barbara Stanwyck, Bette Davis, or Katherine Hepburn. It's just a supporting performance, but she certainly carries herself like a star. The same can be said for her work in Burn After Reading, where she played a ditsy gym employee in way over her head when she tries to blackmail a CIA agent with a violent temper. McDormand played perfectly off of Brad Pitt's even dumber Chad and the two actors seem to revel in seeing who can play the more clueless character in any given scene. Hail Caesar! from 2016 was McDormand's most recent onscreen work with the Coen brothers, and with only a scene or two, she shined as a frazzled, overworked editor who nearly gets asphyxiated by a projector. 

Of course, McDormand has done a lot of work without her husband and brother-in-law behind the camera. In 1988, she received her first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress in Mississippi Burning. It has been more than 20 years since I've seen the movie and I don't really remember much about it, other than thinking it was really good. It's definitely something I should revisit soon. In Robert Altmann's well respected ensemble Short Cuts, she got to join a huge cast of talented people. The movie didn't do a lot for me, but the cast is universally excellent and McDormand's small role contributes to that. 

In 2000, McDormand had important supporting roles in two of my Top 100 movies of all-time - Almost Famous and Wonder Boys. She scored her third Oscar nomination, another Supporting Actress nod, for her work as William Miller's overbearing but caring mother, Elaine, in Almost Famous. The role could have easily been played as one note or an over the top caricature, but of course, McDormand is too skilled of an actress to go that route. Her version of Elaine is nuanced and pulls you in, even if you're frustrated with how she treats her son. By the end, you're sympathizing with her plight as a parent despite some of her tendencies to overstep boundaries or purposely embarrass her son. And in Wonder Boys, she played Sara who is having an ill-advised affair with Michael Douglas's protagonist, Grady Tripp. Sara is another complex character who doesn't have a ton of screen time, so McDormand has to fit a lot of characterization and depth into the handful of scenes that she has. McDormand played her with an undercurrent of sadness and a quiet realization that she's made some mistakes in her life, but is too far involved with Tripp to just cut and run. 2000 was a great year for movies and McDormand really got a chance to shine in both of these roles. 

The new millennium has been really good for McDormand's career. At a time when most actresses are seeing their offers start to dry up, she's been thriving. In addition to movies I've already mentioned, she's been able to work with talented filmmakers like Wes Anderson - in Moonrise Kingdom, Isle of Dogs, and the upcoming The French Dispatch, which might be my most anticipated movie of the year, just like it was last year - and doing a lot of voice work for projects like The Good Dinosaur, Madagascar 3, and the series Good Omens and State of Grace.  Even when she's in subpar or bad movies - I'm looking at you, Transformers: Dark of the Moon and City by the Sea - she's rarely bad or uninteresting herself. 

I've seen most of McDornmand's films, but there are still a handful that I have to seek out. Darkman, Palookaville, Lone Star, North Country (where she was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress), and Promised Land all look like interesting movies and I'm sure they would be worth watching for her performances, if nothing else. I'd also like to check out her HBO mini-series Olive Kitteridge from 2014. In addition to starring my favorite actress, the cast also includes Richard Jenkins, Ann Dowd, Zoe Kazan, Jesse Plemons, and Bill fucking Murray! That's a murder's row of talent and I'm kind of disappointed that I wasn't aware of it seven years ago! 

I'm excited to see what McDormand does with this next phase of her career. She's at the age when most actresses are regulated to grandparent roles, but I don't see her falling into that trap. Hopefully she keeps choosing interesting projects and continues working for the foreseeable future. I'd love to look back in 15 or 20 years and say "Wow. I think she just kept getting better and better until the very end." For most performers, I would bet against that being the case, but for McDormand? It wouldn't surprise me if she hasn't hit her peak quite yet. 

And, since I love to list and rank things, here's my ranking of all of McDormand's movies that I've seen. Some of these haven't been seen in years, so I'm going by my IMDb ratings. If I re-watched some, the ratings and rankings might change. 

1. Fargo - 9.5/10

2. Almost Famous - 9.5/10

3. Wonder Boys - 9.5/10

4. Isle of Dogs - 9/10

5. The Man Who Wasn't There - 9/10

6. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri - 9/10

7. Miller's Crossing - 9/10

8. Nomadland - 8.5/10

9. Barton Fink - 8/10

10. Burn After Reading - 8/10

11. Blood Simple - 8/10

12. Something's Gotta Give - 8/10

13. Hail, Caesar! - 7.5/10

14. Moonrise Kingdom - 7/10

15. Mississippi Burning - 7/10

16. Raising Arizona - 7/10

17. Primal Fear - 6/10

18. Laurel Canyon - 6/10

19. Short Cuts - 5.5/10

20. City by the Sea - 4.5/10

21. Transformers: Dark of the Moon - 4/10

22. The Good Dinosaur - 4/10

What do you think of Frances McDormand? Do you have a favorite performance of her's? 

Thanks for reading!