Title: May December
MPA Rating: R
Director: Todd Haynes
Starring: Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore, Charles Melton
Runtime: 1 hr 57 mins

What It Is: A successful actress named Elizabeth (Portman) seeks to find an emotionally and creatively fulfilling role in adapting the life of the controversial Gracie (Moore), a delicate, middle-aged mother of three young adults who was convicted two decades before for having an affair and conceiving a child with Joe, who at the time was a 13-year-old 7th grader. Elizabeth, determined to gain a performance that closely mirrors Gracie’s mannerisms and mental state throughout her life as much as possible, is recruited to stay with Gracie’s household until it is time to film, taking notes, asking invasive questions, and investigate the scandal to an obsessive extent. The experience with the actress begins to unravel Gracie’s and Joe’s relationship, leading Joe to realize his life wasn’t all that they had made it out to be.

What We Think: Todd Haynes strikes a chord with this “melodramatic” character study odyssey, falling into the rabbit hole that is the three characters’ relationships and how they all extend into those surrounding them. It’s a very human yet very uncanny matter of victimhood and the exploitation that is reaped from it. In Portman’s creepiest and most provocatively challenging role yet, she portrays the actress–a woman seeking to garner fame, or more ‘importantly’, artistic recognition from the endeavor of imitating Gracie…. a predator who hides in plain sight. Like Gracie, Elizabeth herself looks to prey on people’s real lives, as Joe is caught up in a nightmare that he wasn’t able to process. Narratively, the film teases you, daunts you, and makes you fear what’s around the corner when in actuality, the horror was right in our faces all along. Now, it’s difficult to talk about how fucking fantastic this movie is, and I will be sticking around, hoping to watch it again someday as it will permeate my brain-space for a while, but it’s a difficult film to sell as well. The writing and performances pull it through, as well as the hypnotizing clever yet grounded cinematography by Kelly Richhardt collaborator Christopher Blauvelt, but the overall discomfort and pacing of the film lends itself to fellow psychologically distressing dramas, much like the insane Inland Empire, the tale of hubris of Tár, or the suburban existentialism of Little Children and American Beauty. People are not going to like this movie, for how slowly and methodically the characters speak, for the subject matter itself, or for the pacing. It is very, very odd, but after all, needs no explanation despite its enigmatic circumstances. It was entirely entrancing to watch, as I felt myself sucked into the dangerousness of the situation, the sleaziness of the drama despite the constant sunshine and public conversations, and the extremity of the performances and emotions. It’s extremely well-rounded, gorgeous, and icky enough to keep me watching and for whatever reason, wanting more. But I suppose, that’s the point of exploiting drama, isn’t it? That’s the point overall–seeing as how Netflix and unchecked, straight-to-stream true crime docuseries are rampant, with cheap Lifetime-esque adaptations before them.

Our Grade: A, A grossly addictive, beautifully wrought film about transfixions and transformation (as well as many other things that deserve hours-long analysis), I highly recommend this darkly comic, overstated, melodramatic, messy tale that will sure to bite at your bones and make your jaw hang and your spine quiver. It’s unnerving and intelligently created, and a reminder of how evil saturates and bleeds every place it can reach. I’m stating this as one of my favorite and top films of the year, and for me to make a review this short for a movie that I like this much says a lot about just how much you need to watch it and reveals its many darker revelations.