May December

Todd Haynes’ latest film is a genre-bending study of predators and their prey, loosely based on the tabloid fodder of Mary Kay Letourneau (Google this, young readers, if you don’t know this story). Here’s the basic premise: actress Elizabeth Berry (a first-rate Natalie Portman) comes to Savannah to research her latest role playing Gracie (Julianne Moore at her fragile and frantic best), infamous for having started a relationship with her now-husband, Joe, when she was 36 and he was 13. As Joe, Charles Melton (young readers, you will know him from “Riverdale”) delivers a heartbreaking performance of oppression, suppression, and repression - a stunted butterfly forever trapped in his cocoon. Haynes has crafted a film that toys with the viewer - are we meant to laugh or squirm or cry or all of the above? He uses soft focus, the moss and fog of Savannah, doorways, windows, and - in one incredible scene in a dress shop - a wall of mirrors to both illuminate and disorient. Ultimately, the film is as unsettling and heartbreaking as it is salacious and satisfying. All the leading players (Portman, Moore, and Melton) should be in line for Oscar nominations along with Haynes for his direction and Samy Burch for an enigmatic script that reveals just enough but never everything.