Directed By Todd Haynes; Screenplay By Samy Burch; Story By Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik; Starring Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore, Charles Melton, Cory Michael Smith, Elizabeth Yu, Gabriel Chung, Piper Curda, D.W. Moffett, and Lawrence Arancio.
Loosely inspired by the story of Mary Kay Letourneau, May December follows an actress (Natalie Portman) who travels to Georgia to meet and study the life of the controversial woman (Julianne Moore) she is set to play in a film. Yet the woman is infamous for her 23-year-old relationship with her husband (Charles Melton) whom she first met as a minor. This is the latest from filmmaker Todd Haynes. His previous works include Poison, Safe, Velvet Goldmine, Far From Heaven, I'm Not There, Carol, Wonderstruck, and Dark Waters. Not to mention that he was also at the helm of the 2011 television miniseries adaptation of James M. Cain's 1941 novel, Mildred Pierce.
With May December, Samy Burch’s script has a ton of expositional dialogue and doesn’t do “show, don’t tell” with it at all. Although under Haynes’ direction, he effectively keeps the focus on his actors, and it works. The line readings come across in such a compelling manner, that we don’t even need to see what they’re talking about. The images Haynes crafts with cinematographer Christopher Blauvelt also does some of the heavy lifting there. Many scenes have long continuous shots where the camera doesn’t move, but they still look so elegant. Marcelo Zarvos’ musical score, which happens to be an adaptation and re-orchestration of Michel Legrand’s work from The Go-Between, is very haunting.
Natalie Portman provides a pretty lived in portrayal of Elizabeth. She also successfully sells this monologue at one point during the third act. Julianne Moore uses her biggest strengths as an actress with handling heartbreak and emotions excellently as Gracie. Joe Yoo appears to be the most complex character in the film, and I thought Charles Melton definitely nailed it. Of Gracie and Joe’s children, the one who makes the biggest impression is Elizabeth Yu as Mary. I really enjoyed her performance.
There’s so many layers to May December. A lot of which may be hard to uncover on a first viewing. Yet I imagine they’ll more easily be peeled back on subsequent re-watches. As someone who at the time of this writing has only seen it once, I still recognize how well this story unfolded like a novel from beginning to end. Not to mention that I had no idea what the hell was going to happen next throughout. Quite an interesting way for me to start off the month of December. This movie is currently available to stream on Netflix.
Rating: 4.5/5
Loosely inspired by the story of Mary Kay Letourneau, May December follows an actress (Natalie Portman) who travels to Georgia to meet and study the life of the controversial woman (Julianne Moore) she is set to play in a film. Yet the woman is infamous for her 23-year-old relationship with her husband (Charles Melton) whom she first met as a minor. This is the latest from filmmaker Todd Haynes. His previous works include Poison, Safe, Velvet Goldmine, Far From Heaven, I'm Not There, Carol, Wonderstruck, and Dark Waters. Not to mention that he was also at the helm of the 2011 television miniseries adaptation of James M. Cain's 1941 novel, Mildred Pierce.
With May December, Samy Burch’s script has a ton of expositional dialogue and doesn’t do “show, don’t tell” with it at all. Although under Haynes’ direction, he effectively keeps the focus on his actors, and it works. The line readings come across in such a compelling manner, that we don’t even need to see what they’re talking about. The images Haynes crafts with cinematographer Christopher Blauvelt also does some of the heavy lifting there. Many scenes have long continuous shots where the camera doesn’t move, but they still look so elegant. Marcelo Zarvos’ musical score, which happens to be an adaptation and re-orchestration of Michel Legrand’s work from The Go-Between, is very haunting.
Natalie Portman provides a pretty lived in portrayal of Elizabeth. She also successfully sells this monologue at one point during the third act. Julianne Moore uses her biggest strengths as an actress with handling heartbreak and emotions excellently as Gracie. Joe Yoo appears to be the most complex character in the film, and I thought Charles Melton definitely nailed it. Of Gracie and Joe’s children, the one who makes the biggest impression is Elizabeth Yu as Mary. I really enjoyed her performance.
There’s so many layers to May December. A lot of which may be hard to uncover on a first viewing. Yet I imagine they’ll more easily be peeled back on subsequent re-watches. As someone who at the time of this writing has only seen it once, I still recognize how well this story unfolded like a novel from beginning to end. Not to mention that I had no idea what the hell was going to happen next throughout. Quite an interesting way for me to start off the month of December. This movie is currently available to stream on Netflix.
Rating: 4.5/5