The melodrama May December from director Todd Haynes is worth watching on Netflix starring Julianne Moore as a woman always about on the verge of a nervous breakdown and Natalie Portman as a strategic actress about to play the part of Moores character. But it’s former Riverdale star Charles Melton who made it work for the two great actresses. Melton as a traumatized sexual victim was snubbed for best supporting actor and many are upset. This was his breakout role and he did it beautifully. He plays Joe a handsome happy husband and young father who is emotionally stunted from having been raped. It’s one of the great performances of the year, if not more, and for a first timer – it’s outstanding. The entire time you are watching his performances you can feel his uneasiness that the whole movie feels wrong that we should’t even be watching these people. An underlying feeling knaws at you for his elder wife does not understand that she has done anything wrong.
The screenplay was written by Samy Burch and is based on a story by Burch and Alex Mechanik and is loosely based on the Mary Kay Letourneau affair with one of her students who was 13 when they met. In real life that relationship that lasted 23 years. The film made its premiere at the Cannes Film festival in 2023 and distribution was bought by Netflix for North America. Letourneau died in 2020, but Vili Faulaau saw it and says he does not like it. Letourneau pled guilty to two counts of child rape, went to jail and then they got married but later divorced. Faulaau told The Hollywood Reporter “If they had reached out to me, we could have worked together on a masterpiece. Instead, they chose to do a ripoff of my original story. I’m offended by the entire project and the lack of respect given to me who lived through a real story and is still living it.” Many have debated whether Haynes should have done the movie without speaking to the living victim. I think this subconsciously played a big part in the academy ignoring this film. May December received one Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay.
