Cannes 2023: May December Review

This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Cannes International Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.

In an era where filmmakers strive to tackle uncomfortable subject matter in the most digestible way possible, one has to commend Todd Haynes for challenging audiences and leaving them with a sense of discomfort with his latest film, May December. Re-teaming with his artistic muse Julianne Moore, and working with Natalie Portman for the first time, Haynes brings audiences an uncomfortably tongue and cheek portrait of an underage relationship.

The film sees Julianne Moore and Charles Melton portray a couple with a disturbingly large age discrepancy, whose illegal relationship had swept the nation and made them both tabloid stars. Twenty years after their relationship was made public, a Hollywood A-lister named Elizabeth Berry (Portman) is sent to live with the couple and study their relationship for an upcoming role in an independent movie. As Berry spends more time with the couple, their seemingly stable relationship begins to crumble around them.

Before making a name for himself as one of his generations leading American auteurs, Haynes’ early work often indulged in camp and melodrama. Here, he returns to his roots, crafting a pulpy and weightless drama that never takes itself seriously, despite its heavy subject matter. On one hand, the film is consistently entertaining and perfectly captures the trashy nature of a tabloid article through its deliberately bizarre editing choices and a piano driven score that sounds like it was ripped out of the X-Files. It’s clear Haynes is interested in exploring taboo relationships in an off-kilter fashion.

However, if one looks past its peculiarities, May December is a fairly hollow film with half-baked ideas that are never fully realized. It juggles interesting ideas, from analyzing how a relationship with a huge age discrepancy comes to be, to obsession within tabloid and celebrity culture. There’s a depth and sensitivity that the film lacks that makes the exploration of the central relationship somewhat icky and hard to stomach. It doesn’t necessarily cross any lines, but considering its uncomfortable subject matter, it lacks a more thoughtful and insightful approach in its storytelling.

Haynes enlists two of the greatest actresses of this generation, but despite a premise that on paper seems like it would lend itself to award-worthy performances, neither is given the opportunity to show their full potential. Meanwhile, Melton may be the film’s greatest asset, delivering a quiet and heartbreaking performance that lends the film more depth and introspection than it would have had otherwise.

Just like a tabloid article, May December is captivating in the moment and does contain some interesting ideas, but unlike the vast majority of Haynes’ body of work, it doesn’t hold any weight past its runtime.

still courtesy of Rocket Science

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Tristan French