It’s really striking how well director Alejandro Montoya Marin understands the experience of being an artist, most of all a starving artist. You feel something of a fire in your belly to express yourself and show the world how much you can give to them in the way of art, and sometimes it’s so difficult to get by. Alejandro Montoya Marin’s is a pretty remarkable short drama that focuses on the life of a singer and songwriter named Holly, who is struggling to get a solid gig at local clubs to perform for audiences. She’s barely scraping by and is now experiencing the end of a very intense relationship with the love of her life.
Events go progress dramatically when life continues intervening with Holly’s efforts to become a success as a performer, prompting her to re-evaluate her priorities and decide if her dreams are at all worth pursuing further. Though director and writer Alejandro Montoya Marin does set the spotlight on what it is to be a starving artist, he also explores the more subtle lighter shades of life, and how sometimes there can be hope when we’re at our lowest. Sometimes art can really leave us scraping by and struggling to be appreciated, but when we do garner some perspective from the most unlikely sources, it can make it all worthwhile.
That’s conveyed in a moment of clarity when Holly is stranded and is picked by a very charitable taxi driver who brings her home for free. When he expresses how much he loves her singing, somehow every other voice of dismissal seems so irrelevant. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the stunning performance by Kika Magalhaes who carries the movie brilliantly with her turn as an artist living day by day who is tasked with taking a step back and re-examining her entire life. Director Marin turns his character’s struggles in to a very emotional series of trials, and by the end we’re hoping she’s able to endure and inevitably succeed. “Leslie” is a strong and compelling drama and one that examines the artistic experience well.