Todd Haynes' latest film is a curious psychodrama that boils down to two terrible women forced to spend time together, who then have to face their own shortcomings. It is loosely based on the real life scandal of Mary Kay Letourneau, a teacher who began a sexual relationship with her sixth grade student in the '90s, and later married him. In "May, December," the film looks in on a similar couple, Gracie Atherton (Julianne Moore) and Joe Yoo (Charles Melton), who have three children together. The younger two, Charlie (Gabriel Chung) and Mary (Elizabeth Yu) are about to graduate high school, when an actress named Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman) arrives to spend time with the family. She'll be playing Gracie in a new film about the scandal.
You can view "May, December" as a straight drama about the two women slowly revealing their monstrous sides to each other and to poor Joe, who finally starts grappling with the extent of the control that Gracie has had over his life. Because this is Todd Haynes, there are also strong elements of high camp and torrid melodrama, recalling the twisted women's pictures of the '70s and '80s. The heavy-handed symbolism, the attention-grabbing stylistic touches, and the self-aware sensationalism give "May, December" a sense of heightened unreality. There's a repurposed Michel Legrand piano theme from "The Go-Between" used to punctuate portentous moments, and simultaneously wink at the audience. While some of the material is wrenching, and Charles Melton's performance particularly poignant, Haynes is clearly having fun a lot of here. The Golden Globes have decided that this belongs in the Comedy or Musical category, and I can't really fault them for that.
On the other hand, part of me can't stomach calling this a comedy. Make no mistake that this is a film that is playing on the audience's appetite for the sordid, but also reveals the horrific cost. No doubt Haynes decided to frame the story through the experiences of an actress in order to show how predatory and exploitative the entertainment industry is - Elizabeth ends up retraumatizing Joe in the process of getting what she needs for her upcoming performance. However, Gracie comes across as more heinous, because it becomes clear that not only was she completely cognizant of her crimes - despite what she'd have everyone believe - but those crimes are still ongoing. Her battle of wills with Elizabeth isn't nearly as well matched as it appears at first glance. As melodramas go, this is very well made and absorbing to watch, but at the same time incredibly disturbing. The damage these women cause is visceral and impossible to downplay. I can appreciate "May, December," but its monsters are truly repulsive in a way that make me want to recoil from the film, and it's going to take me a while to sort out all my feelings towards it.
Now for something completely different. It's hard to categorize "Leave the World Behind." It feels like a genre film, though it's difficult to say which genre. It definitely is a type of disaster movie, though one that isn't very interested in geopolitical thrills or action scenes. Instead, the unfolding crises serve as a backdrop to a more existential drama playing out amongst its characters, the Sandfords and the Scotts. The Sandfords, Amanda (Julia Roberts) and Clay (Ethan Hawke), have rented a house on Long Island for an impromptu, off-season vacation with their children, Archie (Charlie Evans) and Rose (Farrah Mackenzie). The house belongs to George Scott (Mahershala Ali), who shows up unannounced with his daughter Ruth (Myha'la), after a series of ominous disasters occur. Communications and media services are down. Ships are grounding themselves and animals are behaving strangely.
"Leave the World Behind" was written and directed by Sam Esmail, who is best known for "Mr. Robot." Here, he uses the same overactive cinematography, apocalyptic visuals, and disaffected characters to comment on the modern social climate of mistrust and disconnection. All the characters are heightened types, meant to stand in for various groups of people. Amanda is hostile and paranoid, a self-proclaimed misanthropist who is initially incredibly unpleasant to the Scotts. Clay is the one with the good moral compass, but he panics and acts badly under stress. George is more helpful, perhaps to a fault, as his daughter points out. She's a cynic, who believes aiding others will be at their own expense. The kids know more than they let on, but are so emotionally detached that they barely seem to react. "Leave the World Behind" is not Esmail's first film, but it is the first with a significant budget and resources, enough to put his vision of a deeply damaged, crumbling social order on display.
The film is very good at creating a looming sense of dread and some sequences of sharper suspense and thrills. M. Night Shyamalan tried something similar with "Knock at the Cabin" last year, but Esmail is much better at creating a larger scope and weight to the destruction. He's also keenly aware that the scariest situation is the one where there are no apparent answers or obvious enemies. So much of the film is driven by the characters operating in a total information vacuum. Unfortunately, the characters themselves are very shallow - too shallow for the excellent cast to do much with. "Leave the World Behind" comes off as a provocative thought exercise with more punch than films like it usually do, but too lacking in the human element to be truly moving.
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