May December

You don't need to teach American filmmaker Todd Haynes (Far from Heaven, Carol) anything about directing actors, creating mood and staging meta-melodramas. May December, a deliciously crafted psychodrama that looks as cerebral as it is seductive, makes that delightfully clear. "It's the complexity, the moral gray areas, that are so interesting," says Elizabeth (Natalie Portman), an actress looking to take her career to the next level. In this darker cousin of Carol, Haynes lets Elizabeth in on the life of Gracie (Julianne Moore), twenty years after she ended up in jail for seducing then-thirteen-year-old Joe as a thirty-something. After all, the actress is going to portray Gracie in a film about the scandal. Gracie and Joe are now married, but is their marriage based on abuse or romance? With as much pleasure as control, Haynes stages a flirtatious game between dysfunctional individuals, as if Ingmar Bergman is discovering his campy side.

"Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman circle each other like wary warrior queens in Todd Haynes' twisty age-gap drama, shot through with dark, glittering threads of comedy. His attentive craftmanship, plus the two actresses having a cheerfully perverse blast, keep the movie clicking." - Time