Natalie Portman

Julianne Moore

Charles Melton

Cory Michael Smith

Elizabeth Yu

Gabriel Chung

Piper Curda

D.W. Moffett

Chris Tenzis

Andrea Frankle

Mikenzie Taylor

Jocelyn Shelfo

Mike Lopez

Joan Reilly

Charles Green

Christopher Nguyen

Adam Woods

Lawrence Arancio

Kelvin Han Yee

Julie Ivey

Drew Scheid

Fatou Jackson

Hans Obma

Allie McCulloch

Evan Zhu

Hailey Wist

James R Williams

Rocky Davis

Hope Regina McElveen

Derrick Butler

Zachary Branch

Todd Haynes

Will Ferrell

Sophie Mas

Jessica Elbaum

Christine Vachon

Maegan Robinson

Chris Haney

Laura Rosenthal

Wanda Edwards

Kimberly Cutter-Williams

Marcelo Zarvos

Kristina M. Peterson

Cheryl Beadling

Mason Plotts

Jarret Berkowitz

Ryan Collison

Chris MacKenzie

Paul Atkins

Drew Kunin

Shaun Brennan

Josh Heilbronner

Leslie Bloome

Eliza Paley

Christina Myal

Nick Seaman

Philip Rothman

Rebecca Robertson

Isabel Henderson

Jerrell Suelto

Leslie Shatz

Nicholas Erickson

Mark Goodermote

Haley Ricker

Harrison Kracht

Elizabeth Niles

Jeff Tanner

Adrian Seery

Bobby Johanson

Randy Miller

Sean Goller

Steven Young

Gina Nalli

Richard Brunton

Thomas Dickensheets

Leslie Bellamy

Jim Argo

Julia Kois

Emily Cook

Catherine Godshall

Rebecca Carfagna

Shawna Brazell

Judd Wild

John Ross

Laura Robinson

Meagan Lewis

Kim Santantonio

Spencer Buck

Rinny Wilson

Alexis Leggett

Ashleigh Henry

Sara Alread

Gerrell Boone

Jesse Wine

David Franzo

Martial Corneville

David Cahill

Marika Cooper

Ryan Sears

Heba Thorisdottir

Jason Hamer

Whitney Trower

Chris Nowels

Ryan Watterson

Marlon Collins

Andy Waterhouse

Kraig Kersten

Connor Meccay

Devon Farmer

Henry Locke

Nick James Freeman

Christopher Blauvelt

April Napier

Christopher Guzman

Joe Rynearson

Lee Broda

Marian Green

François Duhamel

Christian G. Hawkins

Grant S. Johnson

Kevin Bennett Williams

Timothy Bird

Leo Satkovich

Steven C Young

Thomas Rogers

Tyler W. Konney

Drama

May December

Gloria Sanchez Productions

Killer Films

MountainA

Taylor & Dodge

Project Infinity

United States of America

English

infidelity

sexual abuse

dark comedy

based on true story

statutory rape

pedophile

boundary violations

older woman younger man relationship

existentialism

dramedy

candid

baker

method acting

reflective

savannah georgia

complex

father son relationship

grand

melodrama

provocative

actress

tense

audacious

inflammatory

melodramatic

scathing

Lachlan Thiele

INT. MOCKING-MOORE - DAY 

May December is an excellent satire with incredibly dark themes at times. Portman's Elizabeth is an actress tasked with researching her next role, a movie based on the massively dramatised life of Julianne Moore's character. Moore and Portman shine in their roles, and both can create believable characters whilst still pushing the unbelievable humour and situations they are put in. Portman, mainly with her fascination with making an actual 'true-to-life' performance as Gracie, copies her quirks and tendencies, providing the audience with laughs. 
Primarily the humour lies in the dark aspects of the film. The funniest, without spoiling, Gracie's relationship with her husband. It continuously evolves over the film, and we finally reach a satisfying conclusion. It's interesting how the comedy-drama has the best character arcs out of all of the dramas that premiered at Cannes. 
Overall, May December lands on both feet, standing tall against the competition. Satirical, well-acted and entertaining. 

FADE OUT

CinemaSerf

This actually reminded me a little of "All About Eve" (1950) as television actress "Elizabeth" (Natalie Portman) arrives at the home of "Gracie" (Julianne Moore) about whom she is to star in a biopic. Initially welcoming of her and keen to help, we follow the changing dynamic as we learn that "Gracie" has quite a past, and that her husband of 20-odd years, "Joe" (Charles Melton) is considerably younger than her and there was quite a furore when they first hooked up that saw the older woman incarcerated. The more she finds out, the more involved "Elizabeth" becomes and the more immersed we all become in this quite compelling story of a taboo that rather broke a mould or two and is now surrounded by an atmosphere of hypocrisy, faux-friendships, and lemon drizzle cake. There is a strong, increasingly well delivered, competitiveness between these two women and Melton delivers quite strongly too as the young man who seems devoid of much purpose as he heads towards his forties. The script is quite tight, frequently potent and Todd Haynes's overall style of intimate direction genuinely encourages us to invest a little in one of the women - I didn't manage to invest in both, especially as the denouement loomed (perhaps just a little predictably). This film quite successfully presents us with quite an interesting character study that works both ways in their relationship - and is well worth a watch.

Brent Marchant

In moviemaking, there’s subtlety, and then there’s subtlety carried too far. In the case of director Todd Haynes’s latest, the filmmaker unfortunately indulges himself far too much in the latter. This story of an actress (Natalie Portman) who visits a middle-aged sex offender (Julianne Moore) to prepare for a role she’s about to play in a movie about her subject’s life never seems to find a footing to stick with and explore. The narrative examines many different aspects of the back story behind the lives of the characters to be portrayed in this pending production without ever really resolving any of them by the time the credits roll. This includes not only the protagonist’s reasons for pursuing her once-underage husband (Charles Melton) – actions that got her jailed and made her fodder for countless tawdry tabloid cover stories – but also the nature of the actress’s real motivations in conducting such an excessively intense in-depth study of her character. In the process, virtually everyone comes across as somewhat unsavory, and, considering that the truth is never clearly revealed about any of them, it begs the question, why should we care about any of this? The film depicts all of this so subtly that it goes beyond nuance, veering into the realm of enigmatic, thereby further reinforcing the notion of why any of us should care. Ironically, these underplayed elements are in stark contrast to some rather obvious (and terribly trite) symbolism, particularly in images related to themes of transition and transformation. The picture’s inconsistent changes in tone don’t help, either, vacillating between allegedly serious drama and a seemingly underdeveloped desire to break out as an exercise in full-fledged camp (which, by the way, probably would have made this a much better offering). The script’s meandering flow and glacial pacing also don’t help, leaving viewers scratching their heads more often than not as to where this story is headed. In the end, all of the foregoing is ultimately quite unfortunate, because there’s definite potential in this project, but it’s never adequately defined and fleshed out. Leads Moore and (especially) Portman turn in admirable efforts to make this material fly, but they simply don’t have enough to work with to make that happen. While there appear to be allusions to themes like the difficulty involved in dealing with long-buried feelings and the fact that we may never be able to adequately grasp the truth behind them (either as outsiders looking in or as active participants in the midst of such dealings), the cryptic handling of those ideas undermines whatever meaningful messages or cinematic value they might have, making all of this seem like just such a big waste of time. Director Haynes has an impressive filmography behind him with such releases as “Poison” (1991), “Far From Heaven” (2002) and “Dark Waters” (2019), but, regrettably, “May December” certainly can’t be counted as part of that list.

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.

Mostly a boring affair, with a few nice pieces of performance from time to time. Portman was never a good actor and she delivers another dead eyed performance. Moore was quite good and so was the man child. I guess check it out or not, it really doesn't matter.

Todd Haynes and Affonso Gonçalves on their film MAY DECEMBER

Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik's "Words to Live By" | 'May Decemeber' Oscars

MAY DECEMBER wins BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY at the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards

Charles Melton & Julianne Moore sit down to discuss THAT package scene!

'May December' | Scene at The Academy

Charles Melton Takes The Biscuit

Todd Haynes on the Intricate Storytelling and Mirrors of May December

Ending Explained

Charles Melton's Pictures from the Set of May December | Netflix

Charles Melton Dives Deep Into His May December Character | Netflix

May December Cast Reacts to their Scenes | Netflix

Todd Haynes on Directing Natalie Portman & Julianne Moore in May December | Netflix

Todd Haynes on Directing May December | Netflix

'May December' w/ Julianne Moore, Natalie Portman & more filmmakers

Do Natalie Portman & Julianne Moore Know Their Own Movies? | May December | Netflix

Working with Julianne Moore in May December | Netflix

Natalie Portman in May December | Netflix

Julianne Moore, Natalie Portman, Charles Melton & Todd Haynes on Making May December

Inside the Script - Samy Burch on May December

Discovery - Charles Melton in May December

Writers Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik

Official New Zealand Trailer

Todd Haynes & Jeremy O. Harris on May December and the Complexity of Desire | NYFF61

May December( 2023)

Some roles are transformative.

Overview

Top Billed Cast

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A review by Lachlan Thiele

Written by Lachlan Thiele on Mon May 29 2023

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