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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

May December

Natalie Portman as Elizabeth Berry and Julianne Moore as Gracie Atherton-Yoo in May December.

In select theaters beginning November 17; streaming on Netflix beginning December 1

In his new film, Todd Haynes makes it difficult to trust anyone. Julianne Moore plays Gracie Atherton-Yoo, a woman devoted to Joe (Charles Melton), the man she has been with for 20 years. Gracie first seduced Joe when he was 13 and she was in her 30s, but at 36, Joe is now a seemingly fulfilled father of three high school graduates. Enter Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman). Berry is an actress who travels to Savannah, Georgia, to study the couple for an upcoming film about them; she’s been cast as Gracie. As these three get deeper into what happened, their identities begin to unravel. With an unsettling and at-times humorous tone, Haynes challenges our notions of right and wrong, moral and immoral, genuine and false. He never reveals his own opinion. —Jeanne Malle

Photo: Francois Duhamel/courtesy of Netflix