Director Todd Haynes’ riveting character study May December was the Main Slate Opening Night-North American Premiere at New York Film Festival 61. The film will appear in select theatres Nov. 17 in the U.S. and Canada before streaming on Netflix Dec. 1.
Starring Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore, and based on a original story by the film’s Executive Producer Samy Burch (The Hunger Games) and Alex Mechanik, the Netflix release is a laser focused look at the relationship of an aging film star Gracie Atherton (Julianne Moore) and her much younger husband, Joe, played by CW heartthrob Charles Melton of the TV series Riverdale. The character Elizabeth Berry, played by Natalie Portman, propels the story. In the film, Berry is an actress and film producer planning a film on Atherton’s marriage, which has dominated the tabloids for nearly the past two decades. She literally moves in with her subject in order to get a deeper understanding of the dynamic that brought these two disparate souls together.
As Haynes’ deft directing and probative lens pares away the layers of this complex relationship, you at first ask, “How can this be?” Then, as the characters begin to bare their souls and events careen out of control you suddenly realize “How can this NOT be!”
Julianne Moore gives a masterful performance as the beleaguered subject Gracie. Appearing at first to be a somewhat reticent participant in Berry’s endeavor, she gradually reveals that she she has actually exercised subtle control, manipulating the situation all along.
Melton is the real surprise in his portrayal of Joe. There’s this brooding emotional storm that seems to smolder beneath the surface of his troubled character, much like a young Brando. At times, the dynamic of his relationship with Gracie (Moore) is upended. Even with their 17-year age difference, there are moments when the axis is flipped, with Joe the self-assured, supportive adult and Gracie/Moore disintegrating into a child-like dependency.
Discussing the film at its North American premiere at NYFF61, Haynes first gave glancing reference to the ending of the WGA writer’s strike, which allowed screenwriter Melton to finally take here rightful seat beside him at the opening night press conference. Burch was visibly absent from the film’s splashy Cannes premiere due to the strike. “It’s so fun to finally have her on board,” Haynes enthused to rampant applause. “It helps us a little bit with the grief of not having actors present,” Haynes went on.
“The film is essentially about that strange and creepy process of an actor researching how to become her subject and to internalize that subject. We see the characters at times merge and that becomes part of the subtext,” Haynes theorized.
“In the film, I tried to find the tonal approach that would make that process work.”
At the press conference, Haynes made reference to the films Winter Light and
Persona by the great director Ingmar Bergman as influences in this latest endeavor.
Avoiding the issue of the strike altogether, Burch plunged right into the subject matter of the film she co-wrote. “Some of the humor is so uncomfortable that it breaks the tension. Some of it, maybe, is more acerbic.”
The SAG-AFTRA talks with AMPTP loom in the background of this year’s festival. The absence of high power stars, such as Portman and Moore from the Red Carpet, a mainstay of festivals like NYFF61, is palpable. That fact didn’t seemed to dampen enthusiasm for this year’s festival. Multiple screenings on opening night at various venues were sold out and most of the screenings of Main Slate and Spotlight screenings around New York’s five boroughs were also sold out.
“There are some people missing today who could speak so beautifully about how they built these characters,” director Haynes mused, referring to the continuing actor’s union stalemate.
For more on the film May December at NYFF61, visit filmlinc.org. For streaming info and theatre locations visit Netflix.com.
