May December (2023, BBC sitcom cinematic remake)

[sevendaughters]

Not actually a remake of the charming Anton Rodgers vehicle but the new Todd Haynes (Carol, Far From Heaven, Dark Waters, Safe) film made with the generous assistance of Rupert Murdoch and the folks over at Sky Originals.

Julianne Moore plays a woman who, quarter of a century before the timeline of the film, fucked a middle schooler and went to jail for it. Twist - they're now married and seem to have a nice life in the centre of a quiet community on the Georgia coast. Natalie Portman is the actor who will be playing her in the adaptation of it, and she comes to town to research her.



It's Haynes so it thankfully takes an interesting route through the material and seems to use the story (which is loosely based in truth) more as a comment on the actor rather than the real person. Charles Melton, who I'd never seen before, is very good as the husband - now an adult, and not a simpleton, but feels like he has a part of him missing. He exudes a Rock Hudson-ness which I found very appealing.

I'd have liked it to be shot a bit more 'classically' and at some point the film seems ever-so-slightly undecided as to whether it's a detective-proxy story about 'the truth' of the story or about the nature of imitation and reflection.

But it doesn't make any major mis-steps and makes a fairly interesting and coherent point. I liked it! Julianne Moore is good, Natalie Portman will never be a favourite but she's fine here (helps that we are meant to think, perhaps, her character isn't a good actor).

Anyone seen this? Planning to? Any thoughts on anything, ever, at all?

[lauraxsynthesis]

I'll prob watch it - sort of thing I'd see on the day after Boxing Day. Will have to find a naughty source mind not being a Sky-buyer.

[Mister Six]

It's out in cinemas at the mo in New York, but it'll be on Netflix in December, and unlike The Killer it doesn't look like something that would really benefit from a cinema experience, so I'll wait for that.

[dissolute ocelot]

It does sound like a potentially interesting idea, and I'm sure being Haynes it will be well-made and a solid 2 hours of streaming time. I just wish Todd Haynes was doing something a bit more spectacularly weird in the way of Safe, Superstar, or Velvet Goldmine (or even to a degree I'm Not There though that didn't entirely work for me). The increased homogenisation of streaming-based film...

[selectivememory]

Christ, this is an extremely uncomfortable watch. Have to tip my hat to Moore and Portman, as they both made my skin crawl - Portman especially managing to come across as even more creepy and loathsome than a devious and manipulative sexual predator. Though actually Moore does a fantastic job as an irredeemably awful person in complete denial about how awful they are, even though you do realise as it goes on that she knew all along that she was doing something terrible. I like that even before the "I'm so naïve" façade that she uses as a defence has been debunked, you see little glimpses of how ghastly she is, like when she passive-aggressively body shames her own teenage daughter.

And the guy playing the husband is great as someone coming to terms with what his entire life has been built on. Felt so bad for him. The scene where he confronts Moore and she goes straight to the gaslighting - horrible stuff. 

3.5*, but that's more about my finding it very unpleasant and not particularly enjoyable, and not about the actual quality of the film. Definitely not my fave of the few Haynes films I've seen thus far. 

[Icehaven]

Not heard about this before but the premise reminds me of this recent-ish book.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jul/08/joe-gibson-affair-with-teacher-seventeen-book-extract-nfbntw

It's not the one it's based on is it?

[selectivememory]

Not heard about this before but the premise reminds me of this recent-ish book.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jul/08/joe-gibson-affair-with-teacher-seventeen-book-extract-nfbntw

It's not the one it's based on is it?

Believe this is the case that inspired the film:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Kay_Letourneau

[Icehaven]

Believe this is the case that inspired the film:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Kay_Letourneau

Bloody hell, 12. Wonder if her passing away fairly recently had anything to do with the film getting made.

[Famous Mortimer]

Weird line in the Wikipedia article about her and her first husband:

The couple moved to Anchorage, Alaska,[20] where Steve found work as a baggage handler for Alaska Airlines.[20] After a year in Alaska, her husband was transferred to Seattle, Washington,

Imagining some world where baggage handlers are headhunted for positions at other airports.

Sorry, not really about the movie. I remember the LeTourneau thing at the time, and...I'd probably feel like @selectivememory if I watched it.

[Mister Six]

I thought this was great in the moment, but at the end I wonder if it felt a bit more like an assemblage of scenes than a real narrative that built to something. Really fucking good scenes, though, and everyone in the cast was amazing.

I'll let it percolate a bit, see how I feel in time.

[dissolute ocelot]

Yeah, I just watched this, and some of it definitely feels like Haynes is taking the piss. Things like the absurdly dramatic music, the on-the-nose metaphors like the butterflies, and the final scene

Spoiler alert

Which is so campy and melodramatic with the snake and everything, awful TV movie tier, certainly not the product of serious filmmakers.

[close]

It's possible this is a subtle masterpiece brilliantly mocking the film industry and our obsession with ideas about human motivation and the possibility of understanding it. Or it might just be a silly story elevated in equal parts by great acting and Haynes's pissing about.

But even if it's stupid to try and understand what made people behave like that, it's certainly psychologically acute. Some great scenes. Loved the older son, who was thoroughly awful but his band deserved the abuse they were getting. But what does it all mean? Does it mean anything?

[Mister Six]

Yeah, I just watched this, and some of it definitely feels like Haynes is taking the piss. Things like the absurdly dramatic music, the on-the-nose metaphors like the butterflies, and the final scene

Spoiler alert

Which is so campy and melodramatic with the snake and everything, awful TV movie tier, certainly not the product of serious filmmakers.

[close]

I think that's part of the punchline, isn't it? All this serious method actor shit, and it's all in service of a crappy Lifetime channel TV movie - with a silly lisp to boot. The casting of Portman is supposed to wrongfoot you - she's not a big Hollywood star appearing in Oscar bait; she's in her mid-30s and starring on some network TV show. Her career has probably peaked and this is her last chance, she fears, to show she has more to her. That's how I took it, at least.

But what does it all mean? Does it mean anything?

That's my overall feeling, yeah. It felt a bit diffuse and meandering, so the ending - while not out of character or anything - also didn't really feel like much of a conclusion or summation of events. Maybe I'm a bit thick (I am a bit thick) but i didn't really get the vibe of one-upmanship or competition between the two women, despite them obviously having different agendas, so that "Ooh, I wasn't who you thought I was" bit didn't really land for me.

[13 schoolyards]

I think that's part of the punchline, isn't it? All this serious method actor shit, and it's all in service of a crappy Lifetime channel TV movie - with a silly lisp to boot. The casting of Portman is supposed to wrongfoot you - she's not a big Hollywood star appearing in Oscar bait; she's in her mid-30s and starring on some network TV show. Her career has probably peaked and this is her last chance, she fears, to show she has more to her. That's how I took it, at least.

Yeah, I think the fact she's the star of "Norah's Ark", which seems to be some kind of veterinary-based procedural, is a bit of a giveaway that she's not exactly top-tier.

[holyzombiejesus]

I absolutely hated this, couldn't get past the surface feel of it. Looked and sounded so unpleasant. I know that was intentional but, nah, loathed it.

[Poison To The Mind]

Imagining some world where baggage handlers are headhunted for positions at other airports. 

fwiw, this is slightly less mental than it sounds: Alaska Airlines took on that name in 1944 and moved to Seattle (the nearest city in the contiguously united states) three years later, where they are still headquartered.

(They started using planes from also-local Boeing in the mid-1960s, and switched to an all-Boeing fleet in 2005. As of this week, a lot of their stock is grounded as, due to a combination of deregulation and tax avoidance, many Boeing 737s have become suddenly prone to having the doors DB Cooper themselves mid-flight.)

Anyway this movie was funny.

[lipsink]

I loved this. Probably my favourite film of 2023. The husband in particular was just perfectly portrayed and written. A character who seemed to be sleepwalking through life after having his childhood stolen.

Spoiler alert

It was only really towards the end that he started to realise the magnitude of what had happened to him.

[close]

The actor is 33 but could just as well be playing an 18 year old.

[sevendaughters]

I loved this. Probably my favourite film of 2023. The husband in particular was just perfectly portrayed and written. A character who seemed to be sleepwalking through life after having his childhood stolen.

Spoiler alert

It was only really towards the end that he started to realise the magnitude of what had happened to him.

[close]

The actor is 33 but could just as well be playing an 18 year old.

He's really good. Breakout shit for me. Apparently all the kids knew him already from some show he was in but he was a revelation. Rock Hudson-esque.

[13 schoolyards]

He's really good. Breakout shit for me. Apparently all the kids knew him already from some show he was in but he was a revelation. Rock Hudson-esque.

He was Reggie in Riverdale, though it was pretty much a second-tier role in the series. From what I've seen there's zero indication he was this good

[Mister Six]

I doubt he ever had the opportunity. Riverdale seems like an elaborate prank by the writers: