To Leslie

Andrea Riseborough upset the Oscar prognosticators when she scored a surprise Best Actress nomination for her role as an alcoholic, West Texas single mom trying to turn her life around. Outside of the South by Southwest Film Festival, this was a little-known picture until Riseborough started a small, self-funded campaign that basically consisted of asking her more famous friends to hype the movie on Twitter and to Academy members right before the last five days of voting. This is basically a more focused, concentrated, and intentional version of how CODA won Best Picture last year—everyone discovered the movie right as they were filling in their ballots. Cate Blanchett and others literally mentioned Riseborough’s performance in this movie during their acceptance speeches or press events after winning other big awards in the week before Oscar voting wrapped up.

Riseborough and her manager Jason Weinberg deserve kudos for gaming the system in such a creative and astute way—this is part of what makes the Academy Awards fun, folks! I only wish To Leslie was a bit more worthy of the attention this nomination will generate. Riseborough's performance in the film is certainly strong. But compared to her prior work, it's hardly special. Riseborough has been turning out terrific performances in big and small pictures for years. Starting with her supporting turn in Mike Leigh’s delightful Happy-Go-Lucky in 2008, you might remember her in Made in Dagenham, Never Let Me Go, Oblivion, Birdman, Nocturnal Animals, Battle of the Sexes, The Death of Stalin, Possessor, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, and—the film she’s probably most known for—the Nicolas Cage cult hit Mandy (where she is pretty much the only thing I like about the picture).

Riseborough is the type of actor who makes choices based on material, not career trajectory. She's constantly appeared in movies that seem almost deliberately off the mainstream radar. It might feel a little cynical that this is the role she decided to campaign on. Leslie Rowlands is the type of character Academy voters really go for. Addiction dramas, especially those about alcoholism, have a great track record for winning actors Oscars—Ray Milland in The Lost Weekend, James Dunn in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Claire Trevor in Key Largo, Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen, Elizabeth Taylor in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Lee Marvin in Cat Ballou, John Wayne in True Grit, Nicolas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas, Jessica Lange in Blue Sky, James Coburn in Affliction, and Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart (those are just the winners, a lot more were nominated!)

To Leslie doesn't really belong among the pantheon of excellent movies about alcoholism or addiction. Ryan Binaco’s screenplay avoids a lot of the standard beats that usually play out in this type of story, but he doesn't put much in their place. British TV director Michael Morris downplays the genre's cliches—the hitting-bottom scene smartly occurs in a fairly private and quiet space rather than with a big acting showcase. However, without these tropes, we're left without much understanding of what makes things different for Leslie at the specific point we meet her and follow her over the course of this picture. 

Part of what helps pull her out is her relationship with the benevolent Sweeney (Marc Maron), one of the proprietors of a motel who offers her a job cleaning rooms. Sweet on her, Sweeney seems to have faith that she will turn herself around, but where this faith comes from is a mystery. At first, especially since Sweeney is played by the vocally sober Maron, we assume it's because he's a recovered alcoholic himself, but it turns out it's his ex-wife who's had the drinking problem. While Maron is billed as a "with," make no mistake, he is the co-star of this movie. And this is the first time I've seen the comedian-turned-podcaster-turned-actor give a performance playing anything other than himself where I didn't find him distracting or off-putting. He brings a lot of heart and credibility to a role that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Similarly, Allison Janney and Stephen Root playing Leslie's former friends feel like awkward star-casting at first, though they do settle into their roles quite effectively. But no matter who you cast, in order for this movie and Leslie's character arc to fully work, we'd need to have a much better understanding of all the supporting characters in this movie.

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