MAY DECEMBER
Elizabeth (Natalie
Portman), a popular TV star, heads to Georgia to research a part in a new
film that follows a scandalous tabloid romance that was once a fixture of the
gossip pages. The love affair, between Gracie (Julianne Moore) and the much younger Joe (Charles Melton), ended with Gracie serving time in prison when they
were caught together. After her release, they married, and they now have two
children together. At first glance, their untraditional marriage seems normal,
but soon, the decades-old scandal reveals ever deepening layers.
From the sensational premise born from first time
screenwriter Samy Burch’s brilliant script, director Todd Haynes (Safe,
Carol, Far from Heaven) has constructed an American tale of
astonishing richness and depth, which touches the pressure and pleasure points
of a culture obsessed equally with celebrity and trauma. It’s a feat of
storytelling and pinpoint-precise tone that is shrewd in its wicked embrace of
melodrama while also genuinely moving in its humane treatment of tricky subject
matter. (USA, 2023, 113 mins, English , Dir. Todd
Haynes)
