It is a shame that To Leslie will go down for most as “that film that Andrea Riseborough was undeservedly nominated for”. Known to may as the film with the most talked about Oscars campaign of 2023, To Leslie follows Leslie, played by Riseborough, 6 years after she has blown all the money she won in the lottery on alcohol and bad decisions, forced to reckon with the outcome on both her life and those around her. While the film ends up falling victim to becoming far too predictable with seemingly nothing new to add to this repeated narrative viewers have probably seen before, it is Andrea Riseborough’s powerful performance that provides the film with the emotion it needs to keep audiences captivated through to the end.

So, what is this controversy surrounding her 2023 Oscars nomination? Being an independent film, the budget of To Leslie did not allow for any large amounts of campaigning the film in awards season, as the budget often does for bigger blockbuster films. This meant no “For Your Consideration” ads paid for by a big-budget distributor, already placing this performance behind those supported by more money in the background. At the beginning of 2023, just weeks before Oscars nomination voting began, many stars, including Amy Adams, Kate Winslet, and Gwyneth Paltrow, seemed to take this little film under their wings and began posting their own versions of FYC ads on their social media. Despite all this star support, Riseborough would still be competing for just one of five spots in the Best Actress nominations, against powerhouse performances from women including Michelle Yeoh, Cate Blanchett, Viola Davis, Danielle Deadwyler, and countless others, all with varying amounts of money behind their Academy Awards campaigns. So on the morning of the Oscar Nominations announcement, it came as a shock to many to hear Andrea Riseborough’s name announced, amongst the likes of Blanchett, Yeoh, Michelle Williams, and Ana de Armas, unaccompanied by Davis and Deadwyler. This upset was followed with an investigation into whether Riseborough’s last minute support and campaign broke any official Oscars rules, but in the end no rules were found to be broken, and Riseborough’s nomination was officially cleared.

This controversy is unfortunate, as it clouds what is a powerful and strong performance from Riseborough. The film itself lacks in its narrative and formal elements. It seems to make all the most basic choices with every decision that had to be made, leading to a film with a narrative arc that could probably be predicted by most viewers within the first act of the film. And with nothing wrong with the film formally, the film’s camera never pushed any boundaries, used in a very basic and expected way. In moments where the camera and the elements of the film could have been used in conjunction with Riseborough’s performance to further the effects of Leslie’s devastating addiction, it instead takes the most basic route in most cases, leaving the heavy lifting of providing an emotional arc to the story solely to Riseborough and her performance.

Despite these inadequacies in the overall film, it is truly the acting performances, specifically that from Andrea Riseborough as Leslie, that carries the film and it emotional narrative forward. There is rarely a scene that Leslie is not in. Moving through the lives of many of those she had wronged as a result of her drinking and money problems, her emotion ranges from the sneaky and sly liar that alcohol makes out of so many addicts to the raging, gruesome woman she becomes when faced with those who continually ridicule her as she returns to her hometown. Not lacking moments of laughter and jokes, Riseborough excels playing both a dejected daughter and regretful mother. While remaining truly difficult to watch on screen, Riseborough transforms Leslie, in under 120 minutes, from someone the viewer absolutely despises to someone worthy of compassion and forgiveness. What makes this performance so powerful though, is that this compassion the viewer has for Leslie seems to be there form the start, no matter what she is doing or how much she is messing up, they can’t help but relate just a sliver to this real, raw, damaged woman Leslie always has been. Riseborough is beautifully supported by a performance just as powerful form Marc Maron as her employer and new friend, as well as a downright brutal performance from Allison Janney as Leslie’s mother.

While remaining a strong performance, it is hard to say whether Riseborough deserved her nomination. Amongst the likes of the other brilliant actresses, as well as part of a larger discussion on the lack of diversity in the category and the #OscarsSoWhite movement, Riseborough’s nomination is a point of contention for many leading up to the 2023 Academy Awards. In an ideal world, I believe a line up of Blanchett, Yeoh, Davis, Deadwyler, and Riseborough would have proved to be not only well earned for each actress, but also would have made for a very interesting and tighter competition. But in the end, Oscars and awards aside, it is very unfortunate that a performance as powerful as Andrea Riseborough’s in To Leslie will most likely forever go down along side discussions of this controversy and sneaky Oscar campaigns.

To Leslie (2022) is now available for home rental, as well as playing in select theatres across Canada.