Post by Dracula on Feb 19, 2023 13:56:52 GMT -5
To Leslie(1/24/2023)
One of the biggest shockers at the Oscar nominations announcement this year was Andrea Riseborough’s “shocking” nomination for the largely unseen film To Leslie, but if you’d been following Oscar prognostication circles in the weeks leading up to nominations you knew it was at least a possibility as she’d earned some pretty high profile supporters in Hollywood who were advocating for her heavily on social media. I will say, there’s a reason this movie hasn’t been more widely seen, it’s quite boring. It’s not incompetently made or offensive or anything but it does feel like a Sundance also-ran from 2004 or something. The movie follows alcoholic woman whose driven away her grown son and most of the rest of the family with her addict antics and gets sort of a last chance at getting her shit together by getting a job at a motel. Marc Maronco-stars as her boss at the motel and it otherwise doesn’t do a whole lot that we haven’t seen in other better addiction dramas. I don’t know that I’d go to bat for Riseborough’s performance either though I do see why it would have its fans. This is engaging in the ever-popular Oscar bait tactic of taking an attractive movie star and having her “bravely” pretend to be an ugly lower class crone, and she doesn’t exactly do that poorly here but I can definitely think of other female lead performances this year that deserved that spot more including Danielle Deadwyler in Till, which seems like the one that was most likely pushed out. Anyway, this isn’t some lost gem and I don’t recommend it.
** out of Five
One of the biggest shockers at the Oscar nominations announcement this year was Andrea Riseborough’s “shocking” nomination for the largely unseen film To Leslie, but if you’d been following Oscar prognostication circles in the weeks leading up to nominations you knew it was at least a possibility as she’d earned some pretty high profile supporters in Hollywood who were advocating for her heavily on social media. I will say, there’s a reason this movie hasn’t been more widely seen, it’s quite boring. It’s not incompetently made or offensive or anything but it does feel like a Sundance also-ran from 2004 or something. The movie follows alcoholic woman whose driven away her grown son and most of the rest of the family with her addict antics and gets sort of a last chance at getting her shit together by getting a job at a motel. Marc Maronco-stars as her boss at the motel and it otherwise doesn’t do a whole lot that we haven’t seen in other better addiction dramas. I don’t know that I’d go to bat for Riseborough’s performance either though I do see why it would have its fans. This is engaging in the ever-popular Oscar bait tactic of taking an attractive movie star and having her “bravely” pretend to be an ugly lower class crone, and she doesn’t exactly do that poorly here but I can definitely think of other female lead performances this year that deserved that spot more including Danielle Deadwyler in Till, which seems like the one that was most likely pushed out. Anyway, this isn’t some lost gem and I don’t recommend it.
** out of Five
