May December - Movie Review

Critics Score - 7 of 10

General Audience Score - 7 of 10

When it comes to tabloid scandals, at least the ones where people claim that aliens kidnapped them and flew them to Pluto to meet Abraham Lincoln, most of them can be easily dismissed as nonsense. But some of the more grounded scandals found in such articles are usually like something you’d see out of a Jerry Springer special, a wife cheats on her husband with all five of his brothers type of story. The latest film from Netflix, May December, from director Todd Haynes, doesn’t explore the immediate fallout from one such scandal, but what life might be like for those involved a couple decades into the future. While I won’t divulge the exact event the film is centralized around here in this review, even though the film reveals it within the first fifteen to twenty minutes, I’ll do my best to skirt around it for the sake of spoilers. With that being said, this is a very odd, yet highly engaging piece of cinema, that’s held up by its rock solid performances. Julianne Moore, Natalie Portman and the incredible Charles Melton do so much of the heavy lifting for the film, even when it steers into the melodramatic, it’s still tough to pull your eyes away. However, some of these tabloid themes the film discusses are presented in a way that doesn’t necessarily condemn the very much illegal core events. But I did take some issues with the feeling the film even lightly flirted with condoning them. While I skew positive on the film overall, general audiences and critics alike will find a highly entertaining but also very polarizing film awaits them when May December drops on Netflix December 1st.

SYNOPSIS - The weirdness commences with the original score dropping into our ears, the same four piano keystrokes play and repeat and slowly lower in pitch as we observe a close up shot of a flower, then see an orange monarch butterfly crawl onto it. We continue to see more butterflies as the opening credits continue and the dramatic music makes us think we’re entering a TV crime drama from decades ago. We’re finally introduced to a southern town, the large trees and moss hanging down from the limbs in Savannah, Georgia, we then see a black car parked in front of a nice home. Out steps the TV actress Elizabeth (Natalie Portman), she’s arrived in town and is staying in the house while she gathers information for her next movie role. She’s on the phone but as she goes inside and opens the curtains, she picks up a welcoming card from the property management, it’s says “We are huge fans of Norah’s Ark!”, the apparent title of her popular TV show. The scene cuts and we’re introduced to Joe (Charles Melton), a thirty something man with some Korean features, dark eyes and hair, and a jawline that could test the resolve of even the most committed woman. We see him as he works scraping off and starting up a BBQ grill on his back porch overlooking the water. Joe’s wife is inside the home, we watch Gracie (Julianne Moore) in the kitchen, she’s putting the finishing touches on a white cake while she talks with a friend. As soon as we’re made privy to the fact that Joe and Gracie are a couple, not only is the age difference blatantly apparent but the pairing seems odd in general.

As Joe walks into the kitchen and procures a beer from the refrigerator, Gracie looks over and says, “That’s two”, as if she’s monitoring his alcohol consumption, before walking over and giving him a kiss. Gracie continues speaking with her friend as they prepare food for the gathering they’re putting together, they continue to talk about Elizabeth who will be attending, she is going to be playing Gracie in the upcoming movie. Joe and Gracie’s teenage kids, Mary (Elizabeth Yu) and Charlie (Gabriel Chung) come through the house with some friends, they’re heading up on to the roof, Gracie tells them to be careful. We next get a tracking shot as if we’re perched on the front of Elizabeth’s car as the score kicks back in. The shot winds it’s way through the swamps and glades on the back roads of southern Georgia, under more moss covered trees until it finally arrives at Joe and Gracie’s home. Elizabeth arrives in a brown dress, hat and sunglasses, goes up to the front door and rings but nobody answers, so she picks up a package that was delivered and takes it around to the back of the house where she hears some people. Gracie spots Elizabeth and comes down off the porch, the two women meet with some comments feigning friendliness, but the tension is apparent as the two are clearly sizing the other up. Elizabeth spends the day at the party, she asks Joe and Gracie some questions about themselves as part of her interviewing process, which she continues through the first and second acts, speaking with neighbors, relatives, friends, anybody that would’ve been familiar with the events that triggered the movie-to-be’s plot. As things progress towards the film’s finale, not only do cracks begin to show in Joe and Gracie’s relationship and while fascinating in it’s entirety, the conclusion did leave something to be desired after delivering scene after scene of escalating tension and intrigue.

From a technical side, the direction from Todd Haynes was a bit puzzling to be honest. There are some humorous moments to be sure, one of them taking place within the first few minutes with Moore’s character delivering a line about hot dogs after a wild camera pan in shot. Yet the tone of the film settles onto a far more serious wavelength as things progress, which in retrospect leaves me with a feeling of unevenness and a word I mentioned at the outset, oddness. This strange script from Samy Burch gives Haynes the liberty he needs to juggle this mishmash of tones that becomes a kind of campy fun as the story winds it’s way along the narrative. As I alluded to in my intro, I take an issue with this script and the way it depicts the prior activities of Moore’s character. The original score by Marcelo Zarvos reminded me of something you’d hear in an 80’s or 90’s police detective drama, like Columbo, for the few readers old enough to get that reference point. While at first I found it a neat and interesting choice, by the finale it had gotten to be fairly grading in it’s recurring theme melody. But it cannot be understated how great these performances are, while Portman and Moore are both arguably among the greatest living actresses and are delivering fantastic performances in their own right, the internalized conflict that Charles Melton brings to his character land him as one of the best supporting roles I’ve seen this year. This curiosity of a film ended up being one that I do find myself intrigued and fascinated by to some extent, yet I just can’t get fully on board with it and the way it explores it’s themes. If there had been even one character that had denounced Moore’s actions and expressed disgust and anger about how sick and perverse what she did was, I would immediately raise my overall critics score. Some will love May December, some will hate it, many will be perplexed by it, I find myself mostly in the last category.

SUMMARY - As I’ve just finished describing in some detail, this is one weird ass movie, but it does have it’s redeeming qualities, with the core performances being at the top of that list. When it drops on Netflix in December, go check this one out for yourself, but next May you’ll probably still be wondering what exactly May December was trying to say.