May December
Todd Haynes’s May December is a demented, fever dream-esque Nancy Meyers film full of deviously delicious performances by its three stars and a slick script from Samy Burch.
May December’s titles give away the film's main plot. An older white woman, Gracie Atherton, engages in a very inappropriate relationship with a 13-year-old, Joe Yoo, priming it to be the perfect tabloid story American audiences craze over. Burch puts her spin on it by shifting the story to what happens to the couple 20 years after the initial scandal. Now about to become empty nesters, Joe and Gracie are visited by an actress, Elizabeth, set to play Gracie in a film version of their story that rips into their seemingly quiet, domestic bliss.
Burch and Haynes are a match made in heaven as there is a clear understanding of bringing this dark tale from script to screen with a clear, cohesive tone. The duo plays into humanity’s obsession with humanization and places the narrative into ruthless territory as it unravels into new revelations the deeper it goes. Haynes finds the horror in the mundane lifestyle that traps its victims into conformity. Haynes and Burch are completely aware of the uncomfortable nature of this story and fully lean into it adding danger to the fun. Burch’s script perfectly sets the melodrama up into an investigation of the central character’s morals that leaves you leaning in to slurp up every single detail. The story never relies on flashbacks, simply leaving the viewer with whatever details they can scrap together. There is never a moment to feel stable within this universe as once you figure it out, Burch once again flips it on you leaving you scrambling for air.
Once every few years we are gifted with two incredibly written female characters together onscreen. Watching Elizabeth and Gracie battle it out is like being in shark-infested waters hoping to come out unscathed. Gracie’s exterior of a child-like lisp and pale pink blush cheeks masks an insidious side to the manipulator. While Elizabeth who originally is an entry point for the audience turns out to have gray morals using a tragedy to boost her own standing within society. She is invested in the gory details of this relationship, but even as she physically mimics emotion she never lets her emotions shine through. Gracie and Elizabeth are both women in power in two different spheres that exhibit how they use their positioning to overcome those below them.
Gracie at first seems like what meets the eye, but below there is an abuse of power. Gracie sees what she did as love and nothing more to it. Julianne Moore stepping into this role is not trying to win anyone to her side, just repeating how she remembers it. To her, she is a loving wife and mother who is doing what she needs to do to protect her family. Moore is absolutely scrumptious taping into a skill only other women will pick up on. Her emotional manipulation towards her family is validating to watch in action as we see the power of her words versus her actions. Gracie leads by what she says not by what she does. There are no moments of clarity to explain why Gracie does what she does, Moore just lets her be.
Natalie Portman is never afraid to give a daring performance as May December allows her to go full freak, mimicking Julianne Moore down to the lisp. Portman gives a performance that is more frightening than her Black Swan tortured ballerina in a skin-crawling monologue that is the pivotal moment of honesty in this twisted fable. May December intricately uses mirrors to explore the ranges of feminity evident in the women in the film. Elizabeth’s reflection is always predatory towards Gracie, never making clear whether this is a character or the real Elizabeth. Haynes places the mirrors as feminity is passed between Gracie and Elizabeth as well as Gracie to her own daughter. It serves as an observation into the true nature of these women.
The major breakout is Charles Melton as the manchild of Joe. Through his physicality, he carries the repressed thoughts of his life. This is a man who had his childhood ripped away and immediately had to step up as a father at a young age. Joe has arrested development in a relationship that has aged but has the emotional intelligence of a 13-year-old. He is a figment of his own life within a system that has not given him a chance to register his trauma, Between Elizabeth and Gracie, he is fetishized as an object of desire, but these ladies’ perceptions of him never fit who he truly is inside. The most beautiful scene happens between Joe and his son which has comedic tones but is actually incredibly tragic. As we navigate with Joe through the dizzying words of Gracie, we become disillusioned with how someone could be this naive to their power.
The picture-perfect American life is framed through cinematographer Chris Blauvelt’s humid lens that always feels like it needs to be wiped. The hazy lines blur this reality mirroring the gray moral compasses of our central characters. They are all at points in their lives where a change is disrupting their mundanity and the future is uncertain. Blauvelt’s lighting puts the characters in the light of questioning their morals with nowhere to hide. The more time we are entrapped in this shimmery novella, the light begins to suffocate us into nausea as the ugly root is uncovered from the shadows. First and foremost this is a female story that Haynes equips his visionary insight to enhance through melodic melodies and velvet visuals that absorbs your senses. May December itself becomes a mirror critiquing its own story.
Like Joe’s butterflies, our characters are trapped in life, on display to be objectified and judged by those around them leaving a disconnect from the reality they live in. We are offered a peek into the people behind the headlines that make us question our relationship with consuming tragedy as entertainment. Haynes asks us to think about what “normalcy” actually means and in the instance of Joe and Gracie, does time away from their scandal lead to the ability to live as a “normal” couple?
In the end, there are no answers only unsettlement.