The screenplay for the film was written by Samy Burch and was chosen for inclusion on The Black List for the year 2020. The film was directed by Todd Haynes, who was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on Far From Heaven and The Velvet Underground.
Right there at Cannes, Haynes offered his thoughts on the news regarding Netflix:
May December, produced by Netflix and had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, now scores 89% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 35 reviews from film critics. According to a review published in The Independent, “May December is a film with no frills or special effects.” It’s a tightly concentrated character study that digs into realms that more traditional dramas don’t go near, and the superb performances from Portman and Moore propel it.
The film was lauded by the Times as well, which described it as “an intensely compelling film about Hollywood vanity, interpersonal sadism, and the human capacity for self-deception.”
The movie was shot in Savannah, Georgia, between October and November 2022, with a total running time of 113 minutes.
Cast
- Natalie Portman as Elizabeth Berry
- Julianne Moore as Gracie Atherton-Yoo
- Charles Melton as Joe Yoo
- Piper Curda as Honor Atherton-Yoo
- Elizabeth Yu as Mary Atherton-Yoo
- Gabriel Chung as Charlie Atherton-Yoo
- Cory Michael Smith as Georgie Atherton
- D.W. Moffett as Tom Atherton
- Lawrence Arancio as Morris Sperber
What’s the Netflix Release Date for May December?
Although Netflix has not officially disclosed when May December will become available, we anticipate it will be sometime in 2018. It is important to note that Netflix will only distribute the film in the United States and Canada.
Who is the Director Of May December?
Todd Haynes is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. His body of work spans four decades, during which time he has explored, among other things, the characters of famous musicians, dysfunctional and dystopian societies, and gender roles that blur.
Haynes first came to the notice of the public with his controversial short film Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1987). This film tells the story of singer Karen Carpenter’s life and death using Barbie dolls as characters. Superstar became a cult classic. Poison (1991), Haynes’s first feature-length directorial effort, was a thought-provoking investigation of the gay views and subversions of the AIDS period, and it helped to establish him as a character of the new transgressive cinema. Poison, which received the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, is considered a foundational work of New Queer Cinema.
What’s The Plot of May December?
The plot of the Netflix original series May December is as follows:
“May December” refers to the nature of a sensational romance that occurred 20 years ago involving a married woman and a 13-year-old boy. The story was a staple in tabloids at the time it occurred. Moore’s character did time for seducing a minor, but in the end, they got married. This was similar to the May December romance between instructor Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau. They decided to move away to start a family and have a more peaceful life. The connection between the couple and an actress (Portman) who travels to Maine to research the life of the woman she will play in a film catalyzes the events that unfold in the movie. In a love drama, unsolved concerns come back up, which causes tension between the three characters.
Gracie Atherton-Yu and her husband Joe, who is twenty-three years her junior, is getting ready for their twins to graduate from high school twenty years after their infamous tabloid romance became the subject of headlines nationwide. The strain of having an outsider spend time with their family causes the well-known Hollywood actress Elizabeth Berry to visit to get a better feel for the role of Gracie, which she will be playing in an upcoming film. As a result, the dynamics of the family begin to fall apart. At the age of 36, Joe is forced to face the realities of life for the first time, including the fact that he never processed the events that occurred during his adolescence. And as Elizabeth and Gracie continue to examine one another, the parallels and contrasts between the two women shift and change. May December explores truth, narrative, and the problems (or impossibilities) of fully comprehending another person. It is set in the gorgeous and cozy town of Camden, Maine.
The prolific director Todd Haynes remarked in an interview that the movie “explores one of the great capacities of the human species: our categorical refusal to look ourselves in the face.” Haynes is the writer and director of the film.
The movie does not yet have a trailer that has been made available to the public, but a brief clip from the movie was shown to the public at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival:
On the official film page hosted on Festival-Cannes.com, you will find additional videos of the cast and crew in action.
