Direction: Michael Morris
Country: USA
To Leslie, the in-your-face first feature film by director Michael Morris, is based on true events, playing as a country ballad with a taste of whiskey and the venom of judgmental Christians. But it’s also tender and human in many ways.
Suffused with equal parts heaviness and compassion, this surprisingly unsparing drama explores the torments of the title character, an alcoholic single mother from Texas who ends up on the streets six years after winning the lottery.
The film boasts substantial pleasures, largely on account of British actress Andrea Riseborough (Birdman, 2014; Oblivion, 2013), who, with authenticity, delivers a superlative, hard-to-forget performance. She’s strongly backed by actor/comedian Marc Maron as the kindhearted employer that gives her a chance to live again and regain a long lost self-confidence.
With demonstrative humanity, this is not the kind of trip you'll return to multiple times, but one that you look back on fondly.
