Oscars Movie That Sparked Controversy Hits Netflix's Top 10
Director Michael Morris's 2022 film To Leslie may be seeped in controversy surrounding Andrea Riseborough's Best Actress Oscar nomination, but that hasn't stopped the film from climbing the Netflix charts. A little more than a year after its premiere at South by Southwest and just a few months after its limited release back in October, To Leslie made its Netflix streaming debut to plenty of success.
Marking Morris' feature directorial debut and written by Ryan Binaco, To Leslie stars Riseborough as Leslie Rowland, a single mother and alcoholic who struggles to provide for her son when she wins the lottery and a chance at a good life. The film also stars Allison Janney, Marc Maron, Andre Royo, Owen Teague, and Stephen Root.
The film arrived on Netflix on Thursday, June 1 and jumped onto the streaming charts on June 2, becoming the sixth most popular movie on the platform for that day. It has continued to climb the charts ever since, even taking the No. 1 spot on Saturday before falling to No. 2, where it has remained, on Sunday. To Leslie currently only falls behind the Jennifer Aniston and Jason Sudeikis-starring movie We're the Millers and beats out fellow Top 5 contenders out The Boss Baby (No. 3), The Choice (No. 4), and Funny People (No. 5). While it remains to be seen just how many households have pressed play on To Leslie, the film's current popularity comes on the heels of controversy.
Although Riseborough's performance in To Leslie was met with critical acclaim, her surprise Best Actress Oscar nomination came as a shock, with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences even conducting a full review of the campaigning process. To Leslie grossed just $27,000 after Momentum Pictures released it to theaters in October, and the movie was relatively little known until the week of Oscar voting when major stars, including Cate Blanchett, Jane Fonda, Edward Norton, and many others, began publicly supporting the film. Some stars even posted tweets about the film that were almost identical, and one since-deleted Instagram post published on the To Leslie Instagram page was singled out as a possible violation of campaign rules, which bans references to other nominees. The post bans references to other nominees.
After the Academy announced on Jan. 27 that it would review campaign procedures to "ensure no guidelines were violated," the board of governors met n February. The board ultimately decided Riseborough would not lose her nomination, sharing in a statement, "based The Academy has determined the activity in question does not rise to the level that the film's nomination should be rescinded." The board did, however, make clear they were not pleased with the grassroots campaign, adding, "we did discover social media and outreach campaigning tactics that caused concern. These tactics are being addressed with the responsible parties directly." Riseborough ultimately lost in the Best Actress category to Michelle Yeoh for Everything Everywhere All at Once.