Andrea Riseborough in To Leslie (SXSW)

Andrea Riseborough, who is practically a regular at SXSW, having appeared last year in Here Before, has arguably never been better than in To Leslie. Beginning at a jittery pace, director Michael Morris chronicles the brief lucky streak of a single mother who wins $190,000 in a lottery, but she loses it all, abandons her 12-year-old son, and becomes homeless six years later. All of that occurs in the first few minutes. The handheld camera closely pays attention to Leslie’s shifting moods as she reassures her now-grown son, James (Owen Teague), that she’s changed—she has just traveled by bus to Los Angeles to live with him (“Baby, I don’t drink like I used to,” she claims). Yet within the first 24 hours, she breaks James’s one cardinal rule: no booze. She spectacularly and unartfully tries to placate him, but he’s been to this rodeo before and orders her to leave.

Her devoutly Baptist mother has cut her off, so Leslie’s only option is to return to her West Texas town and live with her former best friend, Nancy, who shares Leslie mom’s opinion of her daughter as: “rode hard and hung up wet.” (The small-town setting could be the sister city of The Last Picture Show’s bleak Anarene.) With Allison Janney as Nancy, the movie certainly has one of the strongest supporting casts in SXSW’s lineup. With one stare, Janney, in leather biker mode, brings a whole emotional history and heft when on screen.

The film is most compelling when Leslie attempts to cover her tracks and manipulate, though she fails as often as she succeeds. Here, Riseborough subtly and swiftly shifts gear, going from one to 11 in seconds. Whenever Leslie apologizes, which happens more than once, it’s debatable whether it’s heartfelt or another form of manipulation. Yet the two-hour film builds toward a conclusion that lacks its earlier steely-eye conviction after Leslie’s pattern of behavior has been well established. The film knocks her down and roughs her up so much that the ending almost comes off as a deus ex machina in the form of the mild-mannered Sweeney (Marc Maron), who gives her room and board in exchange for her cleaning the rundown motel he manages. Though she lacks references, and a work ethic, he persists. Having the patience of Job, he cuts her break after break. As such, Leslie’s triumphs come off as too easily earned. The movie’s grit goes cold turkey.

However, the best road map for Leslie’s thoughts and motivations lies in the stellar country-heavy soundtrack, beginning with Dolly Parton’s gently needy “Here I Am.” (Parton is everywhere at SXSW; this is at least the fourth film that has a connection to the singer/songwriter.) It’s not so much Nancy’s glaring stares or Sweeney’s belief in Leslie that makes her jump on and stay on the wagon, but Willie Nelson crooning “Are you sure this is where you want to be,” an on-the-nose and a perfect last call lament from his song “Are You Sure.” With the film’s ready-made song selection, an off-Broadway producer may be circling this project.