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This list was originally published on June 3, 2022.
Weve updated it to include Laura Derns subsequent roles, including her latest film on Netflix,Lonely Planet.
A mere six years later, his prophecy came true in earnest.
To say that she is living up to their advice feels simplistic.
She is most alive onscreen when her characters cant contain themselves, when they are volatile and warped.
Off-screen, however, Dern is the opposite of warped.
TV movies dont qualify, except forRecount, a buzzy HBO hit that earned her an Emmy nomination.
That nonetheless leaves a catalogue full of dynamic Dern performances that often tap into humanitys grayest areas.
46.Tenderness(2009)
Derns lawyer should sue for gross negligence.
This barren Russell Crowe crime snooze doesnt even pretend to give her something interesting to do.
He jets off to investigate their sons untimely death, whereas she is nowhere to be found.
Her characters only function is to cheer on her overworked football-coach husband (a sleepy Jim Caviezel).
43.Bravetown(2015)
Get that lawyer back on the phone.
whose girlfriend (Kherington Payne) lost her brother to the Iraq War how about now?
Shes the first wife of Keatons Ray Kroc, an entrepreneur who purchased McDonalds in 1954 and supersized it.
Forget sleep Dern could have done this role in a coma.
Too bad its not a good Laura Dern showcase.
The film instead belongs to Diane Lane, the Stains sardonic front woman.
Why should lead singers get to have all the fun?
40.October Sky(1999)
39.
The Son(2022)
The Sonis a long, soggy bummer.
This melodrama became an immediate footnote on Derns resume, and thats perfectly okay.
In her flirtations, Dern possesses a soft-spoken calm beyond her standard register.
However forgotten the movie may be, she and Cusack form a honeyed partnership begging for a better premise.
Sudsy erotic thriller?Under the Tuscan Sunstyle charmer?
On the one hand, girl, we get it.
On the other, its a bummer that Derns first lead role in six years is something so watery.
As a whole, the film feels artificial; nothing about its sense of humor totally clicks.
But Dern yells a lot, and she is a very good yeller.
It features Dern at her folksiest, playing a do-gooder who advocates for Willingham while hes incarcerated.
She seems a bit distant at first, but as the case heats up, so does her performance.
28.Palm Royale(2024)
Derndevelopedthis sudsy Apple TV+ series based on Juliet McDaniels 2018 novelMr.
& Mrs. American Pie, then made the brave decision to give herself one of its least-developed roles.
As a feminist activist who owns a bookstore called Our Bodies, Our Shelves get it?
Like most ofPalm Royale, she isfine.
T & the Women(2000)
TheF ratingthis movie received from CinemaScore seems a tad melodramatic, butDr.
Dern, however, emerges unscathed.
But this is Laura Dern!
She can make a stock role worthy of Elizabethan theater.
But Reichardt always gives her actors room to find space between the words shes written.
Dern adopts a weary countenance that suffuses her body with years worth of backstory.
23.99 Homes(2014)
Ramin Bahranis housing-crisis drama is taut and underappreciated.
It may be Michael Shannon and Andrew Garfields show, but Dern is the storys heart.
Her youthful naturalism, combined with Peter Bogdanovichs sturdy direction, elevates the character beyond saintly young-adult cliches.
This is Derns movie through and through.
She is easily its sympathetic core, as evidenced by three (3!)
showstopping monologues that cut through her characters bitterness to reveal tiers of anguish.
Shes a gawky, erratic waitress conscripted to participate in her misanthropic ex-husbands (Woody Harrelson) self-discovery endeavor.
Could she have won her first Oscar for something more dimensional?
She treats Harris as someone whose ambition outstripped her good sense.
Then came that platinum-blonde bob and cat-eye makeup.
12.JT LeRoy(2019)
11.Wild(2014)
Bobbi Greyis a sneaky performance.
On paper, a lot of Derns dialogue seems hokey.
But despite the scenes immediateGIF-ability, its hardly the series Renata highlight.
Frankly, there are too many to pick from.
Renatas weakness lies in her inability to square her fear of being disliked with her vituperative personality.
9.Blue Velvet(1986)
Derns first collaboration with David Lynch minted her legacy.
Where would she or we be without those allegorical robins fromSandy Williamss dream?
I cant figure out if youre a detective or a pervert, Sandy says to him.
When the movie begins, she possesses a careerist grit that doubles as psychological armor.
TheJurassic Parkfranchise (19932022)
Its easy to take DernsJurassic Parkperformance for granted.
But itisgreat acting, and not just because Dern convincingly thrusts her hand into a massive pile oftriceratops poop.
Dern reprised the role inJurassic Park IIIandJurassic World Dominion, but theres nothing like the first time.
Appropriately, Dern spendsEmpirein a daze.
Without her mettle, this surreal curiosity Lynch at his Lynchiest wouldnt work.
Dern is fantastic, taking the emotional nakedness she revealed inBlue Velvetto a southern-fried extreme.
She manages to seem at once pure and precocious, virginal and perpetually aroused.
The Martha Coolidgedirected movie came and went, but this barn burner of a performance deserves revisiting.
Dern is volcanic, her movements childlike and untamed in their gangly abrasiveness.
Every time you watch the film, youll find another nuance to appreciate.
1.Enlightened(20112013)
What else butEnlightenedcould go at the top of this list?
Most crucially, Amy is often right: The worldisan untrustworthy mess.
If only she knew how to express herself more productively.
