Years after embarking on a scandalous age-gap affair, a couple (Julianne Moore and Charles Melton) rakes up the past when an actress (Natalie Portman) arrives to research a film based on their lives.

Elizabeth (Portman) visits the couple, Gracie and Joe, 24 years after they faced a scandal, which earned Gracie prison time. Gracie got together with Joe when she was 36 and he was just 13. Some two decades later, they live a quiet and seemingly peaceful suburban life together, which sees her dedicating most of her time to baking cakes and him playing dad.

Initially, the meetings between Elizabeth and the happy family are supposed to be mutually beneficial: Elizabeth gets to study Gracie’s mannerisms, while Gracie and Joe hope that Elizabeth will give them a sympathetic portrayal on screen. However, behind sweet smiles and polite behaviour is something more uncomfortable. 

Is someone pretending or deflecting guilt? Who is performing for who? And whose accounts can we trust?

Loosely based on the ’90s tabloid scandal of Mary Kay Letourneau, who at age 35 served a prison sentence for rape when her sexual relationship with a 12-year-old boy was made public, May December is an audacious and skilful satire that’s self-aware in all the right places.

Director Todd Haynes (Carol, I’m Not There, Velvet Goldmine) works from a script by Samy Burch, and explores the nature of acting and artifice – both personal and cinematic. Most impressive of all is how the filmmaker deftly navigates a risky tone throughout. 

At once a spiky drama and a droll black comedy that borders on cringe telenovela, May December has all the elements of a dark-edged Brian De Palma movie, mixed with a playful undercurrent of intentional campness.

One early scene sets the tone, as Marcelo Zavros’ charged score makes its mark. 

Gracie is preparing for Elizabeth’s arrival and opens her refrigerator. 

The score dips. 

Anything dramatic could happen. 

The camera zooms in on Moore.

“I don’t think we have enough hot dogs,” she says, completely deadpan.

It’s high-camp, and it tells the audience very early on that May December is not what the logline may suggest. This is a film that will keep you guessing.

Rather thrillingly, considering this is where it could have faltered as a story that centres on the possibility of emotional and sexual grooming, the film’s wry humour never betrays the complexity of the narrative and its Bergmanesque psychological strands. It’s a provocative gambit which massively pays off, as the film reveals its layers as it progresses, never letting the audience off the hook.

Both Moore and Portman are sensational here, playing two women with separate agendas, and who are awful in their own unique ways. Gracie could be as extremely naive as she projects, or is perhaps a master manipulator; Elizabeth is completely self-absorbed under the mask of someone who wants to get her portrayal just right. Both are out to get what they want at any cost and are tough to grasp – necessarily so. Their electric scenes together keep shifting the power dynamics, and ensure that the audience are kept on their tippy toes throughout the runtime.

As for Melton, he is the quiet MVP here. His performance is the one that leaves you feeling haunted when the credits roll.

Joe has clearly been wrestling with himself and his fossilized trauma for years, playing the part of a contended dad when he’s in fact closer to a shadow. It’s to the actor’s credit that his comparatively less showy turn gives the film a disarming sincerity, as well as a real sense of tragedy. In many ways, he’s a pawn in a game played by both women, revealing this to be the story of three people in various states of arrested development, each seeking to meet their needs. Even if others must be consumed. 

May December is an incredibly uncomfortable watch at times, but never not wildly entertaining. It’s the sort of audacious and challenging film that takes its audience not only for a ride, but credits them with a level of intelligence – one which allows them to recognize that something complex need not be packaged in what they’d expect.

May December premiered at the Cannes Film Festival this year, and is released in select cinemas before streaming on Netflix.