May December

Lachlan Thiele 5/29/2023 5:03:15 PM 8.4

<b>INT. MOCKING-MOORE - DAY </b> 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 <i>Julianne Moore's</i> 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 <i>Gracie</i>, 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, <i>May December</i> lands on both feet, standing tall against the competition. Satirical, well-acted and entertaining. <b>FADE OUT</b>

CinemaSerf 10/19/2023 5:13:36 PM 8.4

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.

r96sk 1/22/2024 2:03:06 AM 8.4

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 <em>'May December'</em> 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.