May December
Directed by Todd Haynes
- drama
The story
Twenty years after their notorious tabloid romance gripped the nation, a married couple buckles under the pressure when an actress arrives to do research for a film about their past.
What it’s like
Cool, controlled compositions in a suburban Georgia house: symmetrical framings, long still takes of pastel interiors, humid green yards and pale domestic light that feels slightly too bright for what is happening in the room. Todd Haynes shoots with a polished, mirror-like distance, and Marcelo Zarvos's score tends to hover with tense, low strings that sit under lighter piano figures, so the calm keeps cracking into unease. The vibe is brittle and sun-warmed, a dark comedy of manners where politeness curdles into something cold. It suits a late, alert evening rather than a relaxed one, when you can handle sitting with discomfort and watching people perform normalcy. The tone is ironic and observational, with characters who are vain, evasive and quietly self-deceiving as they measure themselves against a past they have rewritten. Its emotional core is about how a damaging relationship can be dressed up as love and endure for decades. Intensity: the story centres on a sexual relationship between an adult and a minor, which is depicted through discussion, flashback and implication rather than explicit sexual imagery, but the subject is heavy and uncomfortable throughout, with sharp emotional cruelty and dread rather than graphic violence. For viewers who want psychologically sharp, morally uneasy character study with a satirical edge.
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