The following is a review of the Netflix film May December, which contains mild spoilers.
A Todd Haynes film is constantly dripping in visual and auditory style with adding meaning. His latest film, May December, is another entry into Haynes’s filmography. One that is filled with films viewed through the use of a complex eroticism lens.
While May December has undertones of Hayne’s New Queer Cinema Movement, the script by Samy Burch is more interested in deconstructing and understanding unlawful events decades later—also, the aftermath and how some wounds never heal.
The story follows a famous television actress, Elizabeth Berry, who is about to break into the film world. Berry heads to Savannah, Georgia, to research a story that hit the gossip pages twenty years prior. This also involves shadowing the subjects.
Netflix’s May December Plot Summary and Review
The events that transpired were a notorious scandal of a “world-wind” romance between Gracie Atherton-Yoo (Julianne Moore) and Joe Yoo (Charles Melton). The story has a hook: The married couple has a significant age gap. So, you are probably asking, What’s the big deal?
Burch’s script does a great job of slowly and gently peeling back the layers behind that question. However, since the trailer already ruins that, we will move ahead. Gracie was Joe’s teacher and initiated an affair with Joe when he was in the sixth grade. Yes, you read that correctly.
The story seems to be a loosely inspired and fictionalized account of the Mary Kay Letourneau case. Here, Gracie and Joe raised a family, having three children, first while she was in prison. Elizabeth (Natalie Portman) sets her sights on understanding the morality of the situation. Or, perhaps, seek an understanding of why people do bad things.
May December Has Three Powerhouse Performances
May December is a dangerously compelling morality tale. While some will complain about the soapy exterior, they are not looking closely enough. Haynes is using the look of a genre film to explore society’s sexual hypocrisies and double standards. While also pulling the curtains back on the cinematic cliches.
The teacher says they were desperately in love. The actress tells her agent that Joe is a big, strapping guy who must look mature for his age. The victim quietly dismisses it as a trivial peccadillo. However, you can see Joe is beginning to unravel with the graduations of their youngest children.
The empty nest now shines a spotlight on the reality of his marriage. Joe and Gracie, not just because of the film being made of their lives, are now forced to deal with emotions that have been dormant and left unsaid. The result is one stunning bedroom scene where the facade crumbles and something honest begins spilling out.
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Is Netflix’s May December Worth Watching?
May December is worth watching because it has three powerhouse performances. That is because Haynes and Buch get the psychology right. This is a story of obsession and control. Moore’s Gracie is manipulative. You’ll notice how she subtly manipulates her teenage children by shaming them. Moore uses her husband to validate her own life and squash her manic anxiety attacks.
Yet, when Joe needs emotional support, she becomes cold and distant. Her behaviors increased energy, excitement, impulsive behavior, and agitation. Melton’s Joe has been socially stunted, lacking competency. (The effects of rape happen at the stage of identity versus inferiority.) His performance transcends the masculine trope; when triggered, he begins to unravel slowly.
Finally, you have Portman, whose obsessive need to get inside Gracie’s head is a revelation. Watch her stunning scene as she inhabits Gracie’s predatory persona—it’s simply jaw-dropping. This is rather the point of May December. Todd Haynes’ film is a metaphor for how we candy-coat true crime so it goes down smoothly instead of dealing with sobering truths.
May December is in theaters on November 17th and streaming on Netflix on December 1st.
