To Leslie               5 stars

One of the best based on real life, but largely unnoticed movies of 2022 must be To Leslie, directed by Michael Morris and starring British actress Andrea Riseborough (Nancy, Amsterdam). Riseborough expertly plays Leslie, an alcoholic single mother from a West Texas town who as we see from the movie’s first clip, won the Texas lottery. The movie picks up six years later when we see that she has squandered all the winnings on booze and abandoned her son at age 13. She is kicked out of the cheap motel she has been living in, so with a single suitcase is forced to live on the streets. Her son, James (Owen Teague), now a young adult finds her and takes her in on the promise that she not drink anymore. Naturally, she does not last even a day before she steals James’ roommate’s money and goes on another of her binges. This is too much for James to deal with, so she is kicked out once again and taken in by two estranged friends, Nancy (Allison Janney) and Dutch (Stephen Root) in her hometown where the cycle is repeated all over. Forced to face the consequences of her actions she has one last chance to figure out her life and make things right with those she has wronged. Riseborough strikes all the right notes in the role and is completely believable as the deceitful addict. She well deserves the Best Female Actor Academy Award nomination for this part. Marc Maron, the comedian, plays a large role in the film as a motel manager who befriends Leslie. He is perfectly cast in the movie. Young rising star Teague is good too as the son and you can see him next in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (but don’t expect to recognize him). The use of 35 mm film in making the movie gives it that gritty look of the seventies. If you missed this gem of real life when it was in the theaters, you can catch it now on streaming services.