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May December
Screenwriters from The Hunger Games and Ant Man and the director of Far From Heaven and the 2011 mini-series Mildred Pierce have collaborated on an emotionally charged fictionalization of real life events called May December that had this reviewer talking back to the screen. Will try to review without spoilers.
The 2023 film stars Oscar winner Natalie Portman as Elizabeth, a television actress who has just been given a role in a movie about a sexual relationship between a woman named Gracie (Julianne Moore) and a 13 year old boy that scandalized their hometown and still is providing repercussions on the Long Island suburb where they live. This film shows what happens when Elizabeth travels to meet the couple in order to research the role.
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Screenwriters Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik do a superb job of providing a slightly disguised look at the story of May Kay Letourneaux, the middle school teacher who slept with a sixth-grader and ended up on trial for statutory rape. The screenplay delivers the story in such tiny slivers that it takes a few minutes to figure out what story we're seeing. We get flashes of tabloid covers stating that this version of Mary Kay, renamed Gracie for this movie, had a baby while she was in jail but aren't offered much more information beyond that. For my money, this screenplay is a dead lock for an Oscar nomination, for its complexity and manipulation of the viewer.
I love the initial premise of an actress researching a role as the entrance for the viewer to this devastating story that affected and is still affecting so many people and how for so many of the people who were collateral damage, it was like this happened yesterday, despite the fact that the events occurred almost three decades ago. The initial clue to the audience of the gravity of this relationship was demonstrated in such unexpected fashion. Elizabeth finds a package on their steps and we learn it's a box of excrement.
We're initially impressed with Elizabeth's determination to get this right and wanting to get inside the head of this woman that she's going to playing in a movie. The interviews with this woman and especially the other people involved seem to be sincere as an actress who wants to get this character right, but a shadow sets over that when we see Elizabeth in the storeroom where Gracie and Joe's first encounter happened. A pall is cast over what Elizabeth is doing and then we get that lovely scene in the classroom where she takes control of a high school class as she talks honestly about her craft and gets the viewer behind her again, at least for the moment.
Todd Haynes' direction is a little Adrian Lyne, a little Ingmar Bergman. Moore is superb as Gracie, as expected and newcomer Charlie Melton seems like a solid Best Supporting Actor nominee for his damaged Joe, but it is Natalie Portman as Elizabeth, whose performance keeps this film on sizzle and could finally earn her the second Oscar she should have won for Jackie. This one still has me a little rattled.
Screenwriters from The Hunger Games and Ant Man and the director of Far From Heaven and the 2011 mini-series Mildred Pierce have collaborated on an emotionally charged fictionalization of real life events called May December that had this reviewer talking back to the screen. Will try to review without spoilers.
The 2023 film stars Oscar winner Natalie Portman as Elizabeth, a television actress who has just been given a role in a movie about a sexual relationship between a woman named Gracie (Julianne Moore) and a 13 year old boy that scandalized their hometown and still is providing repercussions on the Long Island suburb where they live. This film shows what happens when Elizabeth travels to meet the couple in order to research the role.
Screenwriters Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik do a superb job of providing a slightly disguised look at the story of May Kay Letourneaux, the middle school teacher who slept with a sixth-grader and ended up on trial for statutory rape. The screenplay delivers the story in such tiny slivers that it takes a few minutes to figure out what story we're seeing. We get flashes of tabloid covers stating that this version of Mary Kay, renamed Gracie for this movie, had a baby while she was in jail but aren't offered much more information beyond that. For my money, this screenplay is a dead lock for an Oscar nomination, for its complexity and manipulation of the viewer.
I love the initial premise of an actress researching a role as the entrance for the viewer to this devastating story that affected and is still affecting so many people and how for so many of the people who were collateral damage, it was like this happened yesterday, despite the fact that the events occurred almost three decades ago. The initial clue to the audience of the gravity of this relationship was demonstrated in such unexpected fashion. Elizabeth finds a package on their steps and we learn it's a box of excrement.
We're initially impressed with Elizabeth's determination to get this right and wanting to get inside the head of this woman that she's going to playing in a movie. The interviews with this woman and especially the other people involved seem to be sincere as an actress who wants to get this character right, but a shadow sets over that when we see Elizabeth in the storeroom where Gracie and Joe's first encounter happened. A pall is cast over what Elizabeth is doing and then we get that lovely scene in the classroom where she takes control of a high school class as she talks honestly about her craft and gets the viewer behind her again, at least for the moment.
Todd Haynes' direction is a little Adrian Lyne, a little Ingmar Bergman. Moore is superb as Gracie, as expected and newcomer Charlie Melton seems like a solid Best Supporting Actor nominee for his damaged Joe, but it is Natalie Portman as Elizabeth, whose performance keeps this film on sizzle and could finally earn her the second Oscar she should have won for Jackie. This one still has me a little rattled.