No doubt that Natalie Portman was great here, but it just didn't do it for me.
An off putting real story. The acting was exceptional (especially Charles Melton) and the score made the movie even more suspenseful. Probably Todd Haynes' best work since Carol.
The campy touches are a bit weird for what is essentially this disturbing psychological drama, besides that this is an interesting film about age gaps and tabloid sensationalism. Really interesting score, as well as some fantastic acting from our three leads that'll have everyone disagreeing about who's giving the best performance. The visuals and directing are also well done, leaning a little more to the arthouse side of Haynes' filmography, so some interpretation is needed in order to get to the bottom of it. Overall, I don't think it's his strongest or tightest work, but definitely one of the better films I've seen this year.
7/10
i felt uncomfortable for 90% of this movie, and the other 10% was me feeling guilty for enjoying the campiness and eccentricity of it, mostly represented by natalie portman's character. she's soooo off-putting. sick and twisted. anyways, charles melton (riverdale's best boy, i miss that goof) is amazing. his scenes are so heartbreaking... you need to run away, boy. just run away :(
I love these condensed, boiled down character studies so much, even if they're told with this level of camp and soap-operatic flair between scenes. It tells such a thematically dark story, but keeps it bubbling under the surface for the entire runtime, only told through brief glimpses and passing conversations between these embroiled characters. Gripping and thoroughly engaging, with a lovely layer of double-speak dialogue and symbolism, May December will leave you feeling disparaged and gross, but also deeply sad and empathetic towards some of the people wrapped up in this morally questionable tale.
-- Incoherent, spoiler-filled ramblings --
Although on the nose, I really did like some of the framing and symbolism woven through this movie. Joe cultivating butterflies, caged and trapped while they are given time to cocoon and transform, a direct metaphor for Joe himself. I like the hope this builds around the character, he's still in chrysallis, all he needs to do is break out of the cocoon he finds himself in, be reborn and start anew.
I really liked the shot of Elizabeth going to see Joe at his place of work. These two people of equal age, but with completely different levels of maturity and posture. One plucked from childhood by Gracie before he's had a chance to grow, still a child in demeanour, shoulders slouched and unable to confidently talk or hold a conversation. The other fully grown, at the top of her respective field, speaking coherently and with projection. It was a very nice way of showing the difference between the two, and how regressed Joe really is after this entire ordeal.
Gracie is shown as a proficient hunter, holding a snake in the reenactment, a predator, only giving off the fascade of innocence and softness to entice and ensnare her prey. We see throughout that she attempts to instill a sense of purity, innocence and childlike maturity to those around her to control and make people do what she wants. It's only when Joe later attempts to speak openly about how he really feels do we finally see the real Gracie. Cutting, manipulative, and immediately on the defensive, blaming those around her with a deft spin. She tells her son from her first marriage to lie about being a victim of incest to try and win sympathy; to give a cosy explanation as to why she is the way that she is while also trying to manipulate his way onto the movies production. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree it seems.
Elizabeth's monologue to the drama class is also very apt and inkeeping with the themes of the movie. Firstly it shows the maturity difference between boys and girls at that age and by extension Joe when he was groomed by Gracie. All the girls in the class are mature, poised, ready to listen, while the boys are all joking around, unserious, immature. Elizabeth talks about actors accidentally becoming one with their characters and scene partners, the line between reality and fiction blurring, becoming one in the same. This directly relates to Gracie, who is playing a character of her own creation, trying to convince everyone she's lovely and innocent when she's really the exact opposite. Controlling, manipulative, sociopathic. We also see Elizabeth fall victim to this as well, growing too close to Gracie and Joe, culminating in her sleeping with the latter. I still can't decide if Elizabeth is just as bad for preying on this couple for her own career, I feel I might need to go back and watch this one again to fully understand how I feel about her.
Just slow and boring. Waste of some excellent actors.
Melton is the star of this, really conveying a man who never got to truly grow up because his childhood was stolen, and how it’s left him a child, a teen, and an adult who’s unable to thrive as any of those things. I enjoyed the dark camp, right down to the music and the audio stings. I think it didn’t hit the crescendo I was hoping for, and neither Portman or Moore quite equal Melton in performance or material. But Melton alone would make this worth the watch.
Interesting character study that provides a lot of nuanced questions and answers. Of course the star of the movie is not the two female leads, even though they are both exceptional, rather the male lead who is kind of left in the middle of everything.
Fine acting elevates this surprisingly muted drama.
There are several things about this film that puzzle me. Who thought that this was a story that needed to be told? I am sure that there was already a docudrama on the original story, and that probably aired on Lifetime or a similar network. But why this story? The only thing that has really happened is that we got another mediocre layer of sorts (an actress wants to make a movie about the original story). That's it. The only reason that this is even remotely watchable is because of the fabulous Julianne Moore. Several reviews mention that this is a character story. To me, it feels like a run-of-the-mill docuseries with one fabulous actress.
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That piano tune is straight out of "Faites entrer l'accusé" a true crime TV series. Look it up on YouTube, you'll see what I mean. And that's not a good comparison to make.
The trailer implies that there'd be some confrontation and mystery but the whole thing falls entirely flat, as it's pretty clear from the start that nothing can excuse a grown up woman for having a love affair (being generous here) with a school boy. So no surprise in this overall uneventful long movie.
I really don't know what to say about the movie itself, but the story is insane.
I've seen better performances by the actors, but it was still good, and that awful piano the whole way through really got to me, in a not so good way.
Did not realize this was based on a true story... that's wild
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Kay_Letourneau
Complex melodrama with many different tonal shifts, some of which worked for me, others which didn't.
I think there is some great individual scenes and great performances but the overall flow didn't work as well for me as others. Only one character has any real growth, but I think that is one of the points. Playing on multiple tropes with commentary on Hollywood and tabloid sensationalism and the reality of true crime drama at its core.
Charles Melton and Natalie Portman would be the standout performances for me. There is an interesting story there, with as many layers as the characters themselves have and it certainly felt like a fresh idea it just didn't come together for me as much as I would have liked.
That said, I do expect there to be an audience for this that enjoys it vastly more than myself based on the audience at the screening I saw it at. I enjoyed it but not as much as others will I suspect.
an intriguing psychological drama with incredible acting performances. The plot is very dense and is revealed slowly, with some twists and interesting symbolism. The only flaw is the soundtrack which is at times too invasive.
Disturbing and raw. I loved how we got to watch an actress learn her role. She was reckless in the way she sought what she needed. The acting was incredible - really well cast. And the filmography and score were interesting and made sense for this story. Such a scary gray area between what is and is not ok in a sexual relationship that starts so young.
Todd Haynes uses Michel Legrand's music for "The go-between" (1971) as an element that anticipates a certain uneasiness in this story about the past that is avoided and the repercussions of a forbidden relationship. It is a strange decision but one that works particularly well when it introduces elements of unrest into the apparent daily life of a family that faces the past again when a stranger begins to investigate to adapt their story. A very enjoyable cinematographic exercise, which plays with ambiguity to never reveal the truth.
It is a movie with a great script, I think it was what I liked most. But the directing did not bring justice to it. It is a very interesting story about this actress who wants to know deeply to a woman who was arrested for having sex, and even getting pregnant, with a teenager. Now, this woman and the boy, who is a man now, live as a happy marriage, or don't they? We see everything through Natalie Portman's character and we think we are getting all the information when all of the sudden we might have been fooled. The movie ends and we just don't know. I liked that.
Could of done without the weird score because everything else felt like it was from a different movie. The acting was great across the board and found this insanely messed up situation interesting. Felt for the character Joe. Displayed his repressed feelings well. Hopefully this movie getting made was the awakening the guy needed for a secondchance on life. Lastly, I love Natalie Portman. That is all.
I think one of the best words to describe 'May December' is 'disturbing'. Because the story about the scandalous relationship between Gracie (Julianne Moore) and Joe (Charles Melton), who was underage at the start of the relationship, is tough to stomach. At the beginning of the movie, this relationship has been going on for 23 years and has produced several children. An actress (Natalie Portman), who is set to play Gracie in a movie, enters the seemingly intact world of the family to research her role. And, of course, it soon becomes clear that nothing is wholesome here. Gracie is obviously a truly horrible person, and Joe has to come to terms with the idea that he is a victim of sexual abuse.
The movie is carried by strong acting performances, with Melton being the MVP. What I felt was missing a bit, however, was a big finale. The movie is admittedly very good at dissecting the relationship between Gracie and Joe from different angles. But although the story seems to be heading towards a climax, there is no such thing at the end. This is somewhat disappointing, even if it doesn't detract too much from the positive overall impression.
Bit of a odd one. It gradually lost my attention a little the longer it went on, though overall it's a film I'd consider as interesting.
I know of the real life story that 'May December' is "loosely" based upon, so it was intriguing early on to see how the film was going to tackle it. I think they did a good enough job with it all, the actress meeting the subject element makes the film more watchable than it otherwise would have been.
Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore and Charles Melton are a great trio onscreen, each giving a noteworthy performance. Portman impressed me most, though Melton really does come strong across the second part of the movie. The rest of the cast do well, particularly solid casting of the main two characters' children.
A very well made production, just one that did lose me slightly as it headed through its near 2hr run time - could've been shorter, imo. The main piano score, although excellent in itself, gets minorly annoyingly overused too. No hate though, I still enjoyed it and would recommend it.
A pretentious C-list actress gets the absurd idea of observing the private life of the woman she's supposed to portray in a biopic. For many viewers, "May December" might be easily dismissed as a chronic case of "much ado about nothing." In reality, the film is scattered with subtexts that are anything but trivial, as it seamlessly paints portraits of characters as realistic as they are inscrutable in all their nuances, spicing everything with a pitch-black yet remarkably subtle cynicism and irony. The more I think about it, the more it fascinates me.
i would cry if i were him
If you've got insomnia then this is the movie for you... 10 minutes you'll be sleeping like a baby.
1 hour 50 minutes later you'll wake up and haven't missed anything.
It's criminal how the previews can make a movie look interesting, but the movie turns out to be a snoozfest.
Other than mediocre and bad acting, nothing is worth spending time with this. Replacing Charles Melton with a cardboard cut out would have been a better option than actually hiring him!!!
0/10
May December is dark and disturbing, yet melodramatic and funny. It feels very much like a murder mystery without murder or mystery. The lead performances are great, and the story is engaging, but I never really knew what was at stake. It's all a bit strange.
I don’t fully know how to react to the mishmash of melodrama and camp. It seems to be more interested in goofing on the emptiness of some actors rather than the trauma of the main relationship. The performances are really great, especially Charles Melton who I wish we got more of.
Shout by AcoucalanchaVIP 4BlockedParent2023-12-02T04:41:45Z
Character study at it's finest. Very interesting dynamics between the members of the family and a script that creates a weird circumstance between Portman and Moore's characters that kept me glued to the screen. Strong themes of trauma and morality. May December poses interesting questions on age gap relationships(?) It has a lot to say and demands a second viewing to get all the symbolisms. I kinda didn't want it to end, that's how interesting I found it.
Filled with visually creative shots like the mirror scene at the beginning with Natalie Portman between two Julianne Moore's, one of my favorites. One of the best scores i've heard this year, nicely done lighting, atmospheric, lots of tension and three awesome performances (favorite was Natalie Portman, I watched that monologue three times). A weird tone for the subject matter that could totally be off-putting for some but for me... it works! I wanted more of a confrontation towards the end, something more memorable, but the character arcs and themes did come full circle and that's satisfying.