Back in November, way before it was even cool to do so, Paul Schrader was raving about Andrea Riseborough’s incredible work in “To Leslie.”
Now, he’s doubled-down on social media by saying that she now also has his Oscar support and, for good measure, added a splash of taunting towards the Academy: “She’s got my vote. go ahead, investigate me.”
There’s a lot of support for Riseborough right now within the actors branch, maybe a few Debbie Downers, from a particular demographic, are vehemently opposed to her nomination, but otherwise I’m sensing a unity here that could translate into an Oscar win.
That is, of course, unless the Academy decides to rescind Riseborough’s nomination which, at this point, I highly doubt will happen. FACT: Riseborough deserves the nomination, she’s astounding in “To Leslie.”
Last November, I had written, in response to Schrader’s rave:
Riseborough is maybe the most criminally underrated actress working today in American film. When I saw “To Leslie,” as part of my SXSW coverage back in March, I for sure thought that it would become some kind of career breakthrough for her. Sadly, the film has come and gone without much attention. That seems to be a given now with every Riseborough film. Why? She deserves better than this […] this was an alcoholism drama that Riseborough absolutely elevated with raw feeling. Michael Morris’ drama seeks deep emotions and gets them thanks to the UK-born Riseborough and her ticking time-bomb of a performance, especially in the film’s stronger first half. There’s such passionate delivery to her work here, a sort of humanity that seeps through and makes Leslie feel like a fully lived-in character. This one comes straight from a very visceral, but vulnerable place in Riseborough’s psyche.
