But Gracie is clearly deluding herself, and it doesn’t take long for Elizabeth’s presence to drive a wedge between the couple as old, unresolved issues rise to the surface. Melton, best known for the series Riverdale, is quietly revelatory as Joe, a man stuck in a kind of suspended adolescence. We can’t help but notice how closely Joe resembles his teenage kids, not just in appearance but in age. Or how Gracie seems to treat him the way a needy mother might treat her son.
But as messed up as Gracie and Joe are, May December seems to respect them more than it does Elizabeth, who’s clearly working this situation from every possible angle. Portman, doing her best and subtlest work in some time, brilliantly reveals the calculation behind Elizabeth’s polite smiles and gently probing questions. Haynes clearly loves actors, but he isn’t afraid to show how callous and even monstrous some of them can be in pursuit of their art. He’s also critiquing the endless appetite for sensationalized, ripped-from-the-headlines stories and the industry’s willingness to feed it.
All this would be rich dramatic fodder even if it were played perfectly straight. But Haynes, one of the most inventive stylists working in American movies, is incapable of being completely straightforward, and here he walks a tricky tonal line between melodrama, realism and camp.