To Leslie

source: To Leslie

I just wanna tell you something...this movie should be the best movie of the year ... it's kinda what we face in our daily life, this movie really speaks about what our neighbor looks like. Living in motel , messing around in bar, being homeless and making friend with rural community. Andrea performances beyond other actress this year...this is what i called "acting" when you don't need over dramatic to get any attention ...what a great .. I don't know why it's hard to get award attention these days just because this movie can't offer enough money for them, what a shame Just give her Oscar Best Actress of this year.

A rollercoaster of emotions with a tremendous performance by Andrea Riseborough. It really is one of the best performances of the year and will most liklely (but hopefully not) end up as one of the most underrated performances. I really liked the energy Riseborough pushed into her character. At first you would think she straight out overacts but this was just one facette of this very complicated but extremly natural character. She really was great and showed off all her acting strengths. The rest of the cast was good too. We have Allison Janney in a smaller role who is okay but has one fantastic scene towards the ending. I really loved Marc Maron. Not only becuase he had such a warm and sympahtic character, but also becuase he pulled it off so well and put so much heart into it. A great performance that deserves a shoutout. Other than that there was not a single bad performance. Its a very good character study and thanks to a great direction really pulls all the strings that are needed. Surprisingly atmospheric too in a way, at least it felt like you can touch and feel that area it takes place and its characters.

I very quickly realized that this movie would be "Sean Baker-lite," and my hypothesis proved correct. Just like Quentin Tarantino spawned a lot of pale imitators in the late 90s, TO LESLIE seems to be a naturalistic take on American poverty riding on the success of superior films like THE FLORIDA PROJECT, TANGERINE, and RED ROCKET. But what exactly does it mean to be "Sean Baker-lite," I wonder? Why are his films searing and powerful while this above average movie simply seems predictable and at times boring? I don't think it has to do with the casting. My first thought was that casting a classically trained British actress, an Oscar-winning A-lister, a Jersey Jew, and, for lack of a better word, Stephen Root as a bunch of small town Texans was part of the problem--and perhaps it is--but I don't think "authentic local casting" is a necessity or a solution. The fantastic LEAN ON PETE grippingly tackled similar themes despite starring many recognizable non-rural faces like Steve Buscemi, while the extremely similar film LEAVE NO TRACE seemed "less real" to me despite having a supporting cast rounded out by local non-actors. And I'm still not sure why Chloé Zhao's THE RIDER, which has no actors at all, feels "staged" to me while her film NOMADLAND, which plops a Method-acting Frances McDormand in the midst of a bunch of real people who don't realize she's an actress, is a masterpiece. Whatever the case may be for why To Leslie falls short of these other films, casting doesn't seem to be the problem. I think perhaps the real fault lies in the moral compass of this film. Don't get me wrong--I'm happy to see that this film makes a case for forgiveness, redemption, and the ultimate patient goodness of some people. But it also plunges into that thesis in a very clean and obvious way. Within ten minutes of this (overlong) movie, you'll know pretty much everything that's going to happen; when I first saw Marc Maron on screen, I had almost crystal ball clarity of every remaining scene in the film. Andrea Riseborough's acting as the titular Leslie is wonderful, but her character is a little too pitiable and not quite nasty enough. Even before the opening credit sequence is over, you've seen her with a black eye presumably given to her by a handsome man (an outcome which is repeated yet again very early in the plot). We see her suffering the consequences of her actions from the very beginning, and although she commits some misdeeds on camera out of desperation, we never see her do anything truly unlikeable. Our sympathies are always with her. There's very little revulsion to overcome. Thus, it seems a foregone conclusion that the movie will find a happy ending for her, and it seems to easy to see the actions of characters like the one played by Stephen Root as cruel and unproductive. The film has shades of gray, for sure, but the characterization seems far simpler than the rampant ugliness sometimes on display Bria Vinaite in The Florida Project, Simon Rex in Red Rocket, or Mya Taylor in Tangerine. In order for a film about forgiveness and redemption to work, I guess, we also have to be in a position where we need to understand and accept something unlikeable about the character. To Leslie is far too sympathetic to its protagonist for this story arc to ultimately be effective, which is a shame given that the story hinges around a truly horrible thing that she did in the past but which we never see. When this horrible act is confronted in the climax of the film, the movie comes close to achieving its goals, but the choice to never fully display the flaws of her character on screen in a way that might actually make us condemn her results in a story in which it's far too easy for us to forgive her. And perhaps that moral simplicity is what makes this "Sean Baker-lite." This is a decent film, and the solid acting and uplifting story make it worth the watch. It never quite rises to the level of being a great film, however.

Film for the huge masses , and its not a film that will shake the fundations that your standing on, unless youre striving the same issues as the title role .its called a drama and that it is claims the grumpy old man, a real midwest redneck social dweller where the waterhole is the best nest in the west. A story about a shortcircued woman that wins a high voltage lottery jolt, and becomes queen of the town, spending the money in a hurry, leaving a blasted home and family behind her in the mist of richness the film really is aboutcollecting the strands of life, struggling the rip currents of normal life, until one day a lifeguard turns up and throws her a rescue buoy of decensy and naive trust, its just a matter of eating the bait of salvation or still ride the wagon of alcoholistic dulldrums. Its a low cosot production with average standards aall over, its a bit slow and drawn plotwise, but the acting is good and most of all feels realistic from start to end. The preface of this story deserve a film itself, so some ima yoginatio youull have to spend. But good sociaalrealism it is, the main carater really feeds your curiosity and wwill hang on tp you till the end. A 7 with a recommend.

It's a clear-eyed drama set in western Texas, probably in the 1990s. It tells the journey of an alcoholic 40-ish woman battling her demons as she pursues her next drink and deals with inklings of better possibilities. Leslie (Andrea Riseborough) is an alcoholic mom who wins $190,000 in the lottery but soon blows it in bad investments and having fun. She abandons her 13-year-old son, James (Owen Teague), leaving him to her sister, Nancy (Allison Janney), and Nancy's biker boyfriend, Dutch (Stephen Root). Six years later, after striking out with her now-19-year-old son in the city, she returns to the small Texas town where she grew up, won the lottery, and alienated her family and friends. Through happenstance, she ends ups at a low-brow, non-chain motel owned by Royal (Andre Royo), a burned-out druggie. Royal's partner, Sweeney (Marc Maron), runs the motel and has his own hard experience with alcoholic women. Recognizing Leslie's situation, he offers her a job as a maid. The film follows Leslie's struggle to make this work and whether she has the stamina to stay in the town and face the consequences. "To Leslie" was an independent film made for less than $1 million; by November 2022, it had taken in under $30,000. Nonetheless, it has created a lot of buzz. Andrea Riseborough gives a truly remarkable performance as a manipulative alcoholic woman, burdened by her failures and trying to find the will to survive. Marc Maron provides empathy and second/third/fourth chance. The mostly country music that accompanies the film is excellent. Only the ending is less than bang-on.

As an addict myself, both with booze and gambling, I can relate to the disappointments in life, which are in many instances brought on by one's self. Ultimately, you pray for help, and sometimes when said help is right in front of you, the poisons cloud your scenery and vision. Hope, belief, strength, and support from others are ultimately critical. Anyway, this movie brought forth such talented actors, a wonderful and meaningful script, and even when I hit pause to have a quick smoke, I debated that smoke. I have nothing negative to say about this film. Definitely a must see, and one which you just might remember for quite some time. Loved this film beyond measure.

I found this film evocative and provocative. It was a deep dive into the pain and wreckage that is left in the wake of addiction. Andrea Riseborough transforms herself into a down and out alcoholic who is on a day to day survival program. Her non-verbal acting is over the top good. Mark Moran appears as an unlikely hero who demonstrates what the power of believing in someone can do. Andre Royo (loved him in the Wire) plays a lovable sidekick with no shortage of street wisdom. I highly recommended this movie to anyone who is interested in a human drama about a human being searching for redemption.

One of the very best films I saw at SXSW 2022. I don't usually cry watching films but the characters were so genuine and heartfelt that I did. Another male audience member said the same thing: not someone who cries but this time yes. One thing I really liked was the way in which the writers don't spoon feed you the story; some things are unexplained and you don't always understand exactly why or what is happening just like in real life. Combined with the handheld camera work, there was a gritty fly on the wall perspective. This gave it the feel of a "filmmaker film" rather than a Hollywood focus group formula. Andrea really showed her acting chops; I had to look her up and see what films I had been missing. But sadly she seems to have mostly been in schlocky formulaic films in the past. Hoping this is the inflection point where she starts getting more roles of the caliber of her acting.

I watched this movie because Susan Sarandon made a story in her instagram about it. I found it so emotional, raw, inspiring, it made me cry and it made me hopeful about life. Andrea Riseborough deserves the oscar for best actress this year, because here she cries, she screams, she is calm, she laughs, she is wasted, high, and it's believable. Her journey feels real, when she is in the bar drunk I feel sorry for her, she looks so weak and pathetic. I haven't seen any female perfomance this year better than Andrea's. Michelle Yeoh does a good job but it's more technical than a complex character. Cate Blanchett in TAR, sorry, I couldn't finish that movie, so pretentious. Please academy voters, watch To Leslie before voting for best actress.