May December (2023)

 Pros: This film delivers three of the best performances I've seen in recent memory. Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman) is an actress who arrives in the picturesque Savannah, Georgia to meet with and study Gracie Atherton-Yoo (Julianne Moore) who is clearly and blatantly based on Mary Kay Letoureau, who had an affair with a teenager while she was in her thirties. Yet, Joe (Charlie Melton) claims that he's not the victim for the vast majority of the film. However, Elizabeth's presence disrupts the delicate family dynamic who may seem happy, but that's only on the surface. The film gently peels the complex layers of this film and Portman delivers one of the best monologues of the year as Gracie. Melton is also a revelation and Moore continues to deliver great performance after great performance.

Cons: While there aren't any true cons, the opening credits are a bit odd and the music is a bit jarring at times, and the nuanced screenplay is just so meta, it's honestly annoying, but with that powerhouse, yet subtle ending, this film will force you to think for hours on end.

Recommend: Yes

Grade: A-

Side Notes:

-The couple's oldest daughter, born behind bars, is ironically named Honor (Piper Curda).

-You have to wonder how Gracie's first husband, Tom (D.W. Moffett) feels that her children with her second husband share his last name. The kids have the hyphenated Atherton-Yoo as their last name.

-The couple clearly had to sell their wedding pictures to pay for that giant house when she's a baker and he's an x-ray technician.

-Also ironically, Gracie has her twins graduating from high school the same year as her eldest grandson. Yeah, that's got to be weird.

-Gracie claims throughout the course of this film that she's both naïve (obviously) but also quite secure. You can't be both. And she's not secure as she comments how brave daughter Mary (Elizabeth Yu) is at wearing a dress that shows her bare arms. She also passes down the tradition of buying her daughters a scale when they graduate from high school, just as her mother did for her. 

-One of Gracies's sons from her first marriage, Georgie (Cory Michael Smith) claims that her brothers sexually molested her when she was a tween, but Gracie adamantly disputes that. Personally, I think that that's very possible, given how she saw nothing wrong with having sex with a thirteen-year-old.

-Another claim of dubious origin is that Joe slept with two other women before her. I can't believe that to be true.

-It is never discussed who raised the children while Gracie was still behind bars and how Joe dealt with fatherhood at such a young age.

-The ending leaves you wondering as Elizabeth insists on filming that crappy seduction scene again as it's starting to feel real. I wonder if this is setting her up to having an affair with the young man portraying Joe in the film, I hope not, because it appears that Elizabeth does actually know right from wrong but she's such a good actress, she's now inhibiting Gracie.