Nobody reinvents old-fashioned melodrama like Todd Haynes. His films are rich, gripping and sensitive portrayals of imprisoned housewives and desperate women from the past. Caroland the forbidden lust of a white woman Far from heaven.
But his last film, May December, turns this topic on its head. It’s a campy, theatrical tale of sexual exploitation and female manipulation that’s also thought-provoking and ironic.
The story is a fictionalization of a true story: a sensational 1996 case in which a woman in her thirties, Mary Kay Letourneau, sexually assaulted a sixth-grader. She became pregnant when he was fifteen, served time in prison for rape, and remarried the boy after his release. Both continued to claim that it was completely consensual. IN May DecemberThese roles are played by Haynes’s wonderful collaborator Julianne Moore (called Gracie here) and relative newcomer Charles Melton, both on top form.
We meet this couple who live in middle-class “happiness” in a big house with their teenage children and who seem to have the drama of their past far behind them. She then visits actress Elizabeth, played with sly and seductive charm by Natalie Portman, to play Gracie in the film, and Haynes uses her to wield a scalpel to reveal the true power dynamics of this strange-what-he-can-be. , research. real situation.
Eyed by Gracie with barely concealed malevolent suspicion, Elizabeth does her best to ingratiate herself with the couple, their family and friends, asking them about the darkest and dirtiest parts of the past and soaking up gossip like a sponge. The passive-aggressive relationship between the women, according to Haynes, stems in part from the fact that they are both great actresses in their own right, exploiting their femininity to hide their cold, calculating natures.
As Elizabeth delves deeper into the couple’s history and hears conflicting stories about events (from ex-husbands to separated children), the couple begins to relive and reimagine their own history. The result is sometimes sickeningly hilarious, with Haynes playing on the discomfort with jarring zooms and a deliberately over-the-top, funny operatic score.
Portman and Moore are strong, charismatic forces on screen, especially when Portman, as Gracie, monologues directly to the camera with unsettling, chameleon-like earnestness. But the heart of the film lies in Melton’s vulnerable, sheltered spirit and his slow realization of how toxic his “affair” was. It’s heartbreaking to see his face contort into deep sobs at his children’s graduation party as he thinks about all the childhood milestones that were stolen from him.
From May DecemberHaynes deftly deflects gendered ideas about #MeToo and sexual violence and has the courage to suggest that the female monster has its own unique rhythm. Its combination of gripping, dark, delightful entertainment and brilliantly drawn character exploration makes it a modern classic.
Source: I News
I am Mario Pickle and I work in the news website industry as an author. I have been with 24 News Reporters for over 3 years, where I specialize in entertainment-related topics such as books, films, and other media. My background is in film studies and journalism, giving me the knowledge to write engaging pieces that appeal to a wide variety of readers.