May December is about a sleazy tabloid topic that’s too smart and too subtle to be about what it’s about. On the one hand, it’s quiet and introspective and then it delivers a soundtrack that suggests its 200% more melodramatic than it actually is. It’s a pretty mesmerizing balancing act.

The flick stars Julianne Moore as a woman who had an affair with a 13 year old boy (with whom she has been married for a couple decades). Natalie Portman plays an actress trying to get to know her so she can play her in a movie about their tabloid scandal.

It’s inherently a sleazy story that this movie treats like a puzzle box. At first we don’t know what’s going on but the film smartly reveals itself through incidental dialog and subtle reveals. We continuously learn more and more about this couple, their kids, exes, etc. It lets us in at its own pace, revealing characters and hidden depths as the film plays out.

Since we never really get into the minds and motivations, we have to figure them out based on their interactions. For example, is Natalie Portman’s character up to anything more than she claims? Does she have ulterior motives? Certainly her borderline sordid soundtrack suggests a far more scandalous film… almost like we’re hearing the soundtrack to the movie she’s about to make, not the movie we’re watching.

Julianne Moore plays someone who wants to appear at peace but who reveals hidden aberrations and manipulations. Her husband – the now 36 year old manboy played Charles Melton, is pretty terrific too… he’s stunted and damaged in interesting, tragic ways.

This is a pretty terrific cast in a very smart, very subtle film. Surface level suggests a sleazy tabloid affair but there’s hidden, often murkier depths. You have to pay all the attention to read into what’s going on behind these characters. it’s a pretty great film.

Score: 88