May December, 2023.
Directed by Todd Haynes.
Starring Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore, Charles Melton, Elizabeth Yu, Andrea Frankle, Cory Michael Smith, Kelvin Han Yee, Joan Reilly, Piper Curda, Gabriel Chung, D.W. Moffett, Drew Scheid, Chris Tenzis, Mikenzie Taylor, Jocelyn Shelfo, Mike Lopez, Christopher Nguyen, Charles Green, Lawrence Arancio, Julie Ivey, Fatou Jackson, Hans Obma, and Hailey Wist.
SYNOPSIS:
Twenty years after their notorious tabloid romance gripped the nation, a married couple buckles under pressure when an actress arrives to do research for a film about their past.
In Todd Haynes’ May December, there is a tonal mashup between characters, deftly coexisting to tell a darkly funny story about tabloid obsession and sexual abuser narcissism with its pitch-black melodramatic camp grounded by a soulful turn from Charles Melton playing a victim who doesn’t see himself as a victim. He is Joe, navigating emotionally complex feelings once the origins of their relationship become a topic of discussion again following a well-known actress coming into town researching for a role and dabbling in some method preparation. That role will be Natalie Portman’s Elizabeth Berry, portraying Julianne Moore’s Gracie, who fell in love with Joe in her thirties when he was in seventh grade. She wound up serving time in jail upon getting busted, engaging in sexual intercourse in the storage room of the pet shop where they worked. They remained together and raised a family.
It soon becomes clear that Elizabeth is uncomfortably interested in accurately pinning down this role to the point where the line feels blurred on whether or not she is trying to understand the relationship between Gracie and Joe or if she is trying to tap into a darker, perverted side within herself. There is asking questions, mimicking appearance, and noting speech patterns, and then there is masturbating in that same pet shop storage room, which is overkill. Regardless of the answer, it’s also apparent that Todd Haynes (alongside writer Samy Burch with Alex Mechanik receiving a story credit loosely based on Mary Kay Letourneau’s life) is using this entire dynamic to knock the indulgent nature of method acting, implying that no matter how far down Elizabeth goes down that rabbit hole, she probably won’t have an answer as to why Gracie did this.
Elizabeth openly states that the film she will be starring in intends to be fair to the relationship and portray the human side of Gloria, but her approach to learning about Gloria comes across as a self-serving obsession done for the wrong reasons and something that is psychologically damaging her (at one point, she grossly but hilariously suggests that they need to find “sexier” children to portray Joe, musing that he probably always had a quiet, seductive confidence.” Part of her preparation also involves trying to seduce a supposedly happily married Joe while flying way too close to the sun and getting into detail lecturing a high school classroom about her past sex scenes.
The lack of shame Gracie expresses, especially after settling down with Joe after being released from jail and having built an everyday life, providing for their children and living comfortably due to hitting it big financially from the media’s obsession with this sleazy story, is something Elizabeth seems to crave. Even her attempts at convincing Joe he is a victim of abuse come across as dishonest and an active manipulation for her gain, as if she wants to audition for the role by pulling off what Gracie did but will also settle for becoming her as close as she can through method acting.
Then there is the dynamic between Gracie and Joe, which is naturally awkward considering the former treats him more like a teenage son rather than a life partner (the way she criticizes him for coming into bed smelling like grill-smoke without showering feels like a mother laying down the law, not playful ribbing between lovers.) As a result, in terms of maturity, Joe is interchangeable with his twin children, about to graduate high school soon (both of whom are happy to honestly spill their feelings to Elizabeth regarding how they feel about their parent’s relationship.) Cruelly, Gracie never seems to have anything nice to say to the kids.
As Elizabeth goes around Savannah, interviewing everyone from Gracie to the ex-husband she cheated on for an underage 13-year-old boy, to the now grown son she once had with that former partner, to the Yoo family, and more, the situation pushes Joe to confront his repressed trauma. This is a man who has spent his entire early adulthood raising children, who was never granted the opportunity to be a reckless and disobedient handful of a teenager, all to the point where his son is the one who convinces him to smoke for the first time, amounting to a beautifully moving moment that snaps into perspective just how disturbingly messed up his life has been.
However, that’s not what Elizabeth sees. She sees fodder for acting as an excuse to behave like a full-blown creep under the guise of trying to understand a complex human. Meanwhile, Gracie just wants to make it through the entire research process with her family intact. Unsurprisingly, Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore are outstanding in a film with its knives directed at method acting, tabloid obsession, and casual narcissism.
Todd Haynes’ aim has to go that way since Charles Melton’s Joe struggles with accepting he was abused and that Gracie treats him like a child rather than having a grown-up conversation. Thankfully, he does seem somewhat aware that he is not happy, as evident from an unseen friend he consistently texts about his hobby of caring for butterflies (which also only seems to exist for not so subtle eye-rolling symbolism.) But when May December is fixated on Joe, Charles Melton is devastatingly transfixing. He is a sensitive, lost man surrounded by horrible people who don’t care about his mental well-being, even when they claim they do.
By design, everyone feels like they are acting in a different movie from Joe, considering they selfishly live in their own world. The story’s power resides in Charles Melton’s breathtaking portrayal of sadness, confusion, and repression.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
