FYC: Julianne Moore in "May December" for Best Supporting Actress
Monday, January 15, 2024 at 9:30PM by Nick Taylor
I don't think Julianne Moore has enough awards
Another year, another Todd Haynes film in grave danger of being overlooked by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. I don’t love May December as deeply as some of y’all, but its complete omission from SAG was a gigantic bummer. With Oscar voting underway, I’ve decided to do what I do best: write about actresses for a moderate and appreciative corner of queers on the internet. I’m bringing back my Supporting Actress write-ups as an For Your Consideration pulpit, starting with my absolute favorite of the performances currently contending for a nomination: Julianne Moore’s black hole of pathetic neediness and weaponized ignorance in May December.
Some have alleged Moore’s Gracie Atherton-Yoo, the statutory rapist-cum-suburban housewife, is a leading role strategically placed in the supporting category to maximize May December’s awards potential. Because I am writing about folks contending for this award, I will not be interrogating Moore’s placement in this article, though I believe she belongs in the supporting category and am welcome to discussing it further for a large sum of money.
Does anyone really know Gracie Atherton-Yoo? This question is one of May December’s defining thru-lines, with just about everyone we meet offering some insight or explanation of how she ended up with the life she has. When the film starts, Gracie is happily married to her second husband Joe (Melton) in Savannah, Georgia. 23 years earlier, when Gracie was 36 and Joe was 13, Gracie was caught having sex with Joe in the supply closet of the pet shop they worked at, turning them into tabloid fodder for the rest of their lives. Gracie soon divorced her first husband and had her and Joe’s first child in jail. Back in the present year of 2015, Gracie and Joe are beloved figures in their community, devoted parents of three kids contemplating life as empty-nesters as their twins (Elizabeth Yu and Gabriel Chung) gear up to graduate high school.
The arrival of actress Elizabeth Berry (Portman) upends the life they’ve built for themselves. Elizabeth is set to play Gracie in an upcoming indie film, and has come to interview the happy couple about how they met, the circumstances in their lives that brought them together, and what they think of themselves now. Elizabeth conducts her research vampirically. She steals Gracie’s lisp and style and body language. She re-enacts Gracie’s seduction of Joe, stealing away private moments at his work and teasing his interest, helping him realize his own stuntedness purely as fodder to gain his trust and arouse his attraction. Elizabeth picks and pries at the couple’s defenses, enjoying their hospitality at summer barbecues and family parties and goading them with questions they’d prefer to leave alone.
Gracie, for her part, is quite the hostess, even as she can’t help but keep her guard up or throw a spiky rejoinder at her guest. Writing and directing are invaluable to these scenes, particularly the decision to block both women in the frame, their faces and bodies simultaneously present for the audience. Moore nails these mundane pas-a-deuxes of Gracie and Elizabeth studying each other while trying to keep their cards hidden. Moore keys perfectly into the script’s dark comedy, inhabiting a woman lying to herself about every aspect of her own life without going for Portman’s more performative cadences. She’s trying to sell her and Joe’s story as one of unconventional true love triumphing over the cruel, reductive judgments of others, an act she’s been putting on for herself every day of her life. Gracie’s delusions are so familiar she’s able to wear them like an old sweater, even as guilt and self-knowledge threaten to bubble over when provoked.
It’s hysterical to watch Moore change moods on a dime based on whether or not Gracie approves of the questions Elizabeth is asking. She throws the line “What does that have to do with the movie?” without raising her voice, but she turns to Elizabeth with such steeliness in her eyes, her posture accommodating the faux-casual but utterly venomous rebuttal, that the actress briefly stalls and reboots under her gaze. When interacting with neighbors, Moore sells Gracie as a well-liked and active member of her community. She knows how to bake a delicious pie and arrange her flowers just so. Teaching Elizabeth is its own exercise in patience, with Moore’s line readings and sidelong glances indicating exactly what she thinks of this bitch’s domestic skills. Sure, Gracie raped and wed a literal child, but she at least knows how to spread fruit filling inside a pie crust like a respectable human being.
“Hysterical” may ultimately be the wrong word for Gracie, given how lacerating her laugh lines often are, but not for Moore's performance. What else can we do but balk in disbelief at how sunny she is when she commends her daughter for defying traditional beauty standards by wearing a sleeveless gown to her graduation ceremony? Moore lets the audacity of the line speak for itself rather than underlining malice or maternal jealousy, allowing the audience enough room to wonder what the hell would make her say that. Another instance of maternal toxicity rears its head at a family dinner the night before graduation, where her oldest daughter Honor (Piper Curda) asks what inspired Gracie to give her a scale as her going-away present for college. “My mother did the same for me” she says, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world, and as if this in itself was okay. “I want all my children to grow up healthy and strong” she says, offended to be interrogated about anything she’s ever done, particularly by her own children. It’s not like she’s ever done anything wrong to the people she says she cares about, right?
Any sense of loss erupts violently and totally from Gracie, the kind of full-body release that only makes sense as a cumulative response to everything that has ever gone wrong in a person’s life. Gracie’s full-bodied sobs at losing a client for her baking business are frightening and pathetically dramatic, but I’m also reminded of a very early tantrum, as she chokes out tears from the smell of charcoal and smoke emanating off Joe after a barbecue. “I wish you’d showered before you got into bed”, “I wasted HOURS on this cake”, etc. Yes, Moore does a fantastic job of illustrating how painful it must be to manage this woman’s fragility, but if she’s this distraught at losing hours, at losing minutes, what does she think of her life before she met Joe? What does she think of her first marriage, of her childhood, of the life she has now when she feels the slightest twinge of regret? There’s such an ugly emptiness at the center of this woman, emblematized by a desperate need to control how the world sees her.
I’ve read a few reviews questioning the decision to make Gracie such an enigma when the history of her real-life counterpart is so well-documented. Yet Moore makes the absolute most of this artistic decision, refusing to "explain" Gracie while finding some very human truths inn her. Because even if the different stories and explanations offered by herself and the other characters are true, is there a trauma that would make sense of Gracie’s choices? What mix of abuse, of real or practiced naivety, of lifelong discontent and manipulative behavior could help us understand something as grotesque as pedophilia, let alone the more quotidian behaviors of a devoted homemaker who doesn't always see eye to eye with her brood?
The gag of it all, finally, is that Moore’s Gracie is defined as much by this fragility as how brilliantly she’s weaponized her naivety into an armor against all forms of self-knowledge or coerced admission. Gracie's lisp, among the best character details of any performance this year, changes in intensity depending on whether she wants to come across as a simple woman who didn’t know better or an autonomous adult, even as Moore balances these fluctuations with some other faux-casual calculation in her body language or line readings. She’s a very secure person after all. Better than anyone else in May December, Moore encapsulates the hideous gray zone of unseen depths and the plain truth that, actually, what you see is pretty much what you’re gonna get. Gracie is a wife and mother with the kinds of family joys and troubles you might expect from any woman. She is also a rapist who preyed on a child, paid her dues under the law, married him, and is living in this new life she made for herself. She likes to bake. What else is there to say?
May December is currently streaming exclusively on Netflix
2023, Best Supporting Actress, FYC, Julianne Moore, May December, Todd Haynes
Reader Comments (19)
I appreciate this piece on Julianne but I think most critics are correct we never understand her and so we are removed from her situation.
I enjoyed Portman the most I have for a few yrs and really liked Melton.
I got more from tidbits of dialogue from her friends etc,she was obviously indulged and no-one ever spoke the truth to her.
I don't think she will get nominated but i'll be pleased if she does,I think Ferrara and Foster are stronger though i'm not sold on Brookes either,Randoplh and Blunt seeme assured.
I couldn't agree more, except for the part where I'd nominate Moore as a lead actress. Your last paragraph is especially brilliant. It's awe-inspiring how she both plays an enigma and someone so self-evident in her true self...or maybe not. Such a slippery characterization. Or should I say thlippery?
One of the best LEADING actress performances of the year, yes. Fascinating how the character echoes Moore's Carol White from SAFE in so many ways. Haynes even repeats the setup of the final mirror shot from that film!
Julianne is fantastic and should be nominated. She's probably the best supporting performance this year. Certainly better than Brown in The Holdovers. Cheerz.
@ Sad Man: Wait, woah. Did you just confuse Da'Vine Joy Randolph with Sterling K. Brown?
Nick, thank you for this blissful assay on Moore's transcendent performance. It's funny, insightful, and I'm now fully in love with you and feel we should run away and plan a life together.
It's INSANE that Moore isn't winning every prize in town for Supporting Actress (only in 32m of the movie!) for this film. I absolutely LOVE Da'Vine in The Holdovers, she's wonderful, but she's not doing what Julianne is doing in May December. The layers and depth, the skill and technique, the lockstep with Haynes across tones...it's really astonishing acting of the highest level.
Moore is absolutely stunning!
It's a very complex performance - for me clearly leading.
She will be nominated!
Nick - I am always a fan of your writing: like meeting an articulate person tell you something that excites him. I find myself smiling at your turns of phrase and the refreshing insights.
Yep I'm a "me, too" for Julianne Moore's work in May December. Inscrutable though she may be to some, I am impressed by the solid and pastel colors Moore deployed to characterise Gracie: elusive and fleeting in some instances, relatable in the tiny ways she executes the ordinary and mundane in other instances. Is Gracie and Moore's characterisation of Gracie too cerebral, too distant, too theoretical, too unrelatable? I thought she completes the compelling trio of excellent actors in the film.
A few things about May December:
- I thought Charles Melton did a wonderful delineation of a man-child in the third act. His own persona (appearance, voice, body, manner of speaking) perfectly captured his complex complex.
- While not a huge fan of Natalie Portman, I thought she is the film's MVP. Like Melton, she subtly peels away layers of her multi-layered persona. That scene where she and Moore were in the dressing room waiting for Gracie's daughter to show what she's wearing, Portman was looking at the mirror frequently yet surreptitiously and watches herself imitating Gracie's gestures and posture. She was creating a chamber opera while remaining in her seat doing that. I was impressed. I wish she's nominated but this will be one performance of hers I will come back to when making a case why she is an excellent actress. Hopefully someday this film and her performance will be discussed in film courses.
- Not a fan of Marcelo Zarvos' deconstruction of Michel Legrand soundtrack for The Go-Between. It gets in the way of effective storytelling.
While the awards shows insist upon celebrating mediocrity with Blunt and Da’Vine, truly great performances from Moore and Penelope are in serious danger of being overlooked by the Oscars. It’s a real shame.
"Moore makes the absolute most of this artistic decision, refusing to "explain" Gracie" - it's this, to me. She wrings out 100% of the possibilities provided to her by that decision. All 3 of the lead actors in this are doing great work, and it's a shame she'll likely lose a nomination to a lesser performance or 2.
Btw, me saying "lead actor" does NOT mean I think Moore should be in lead, I just meant it as a shorthand to refer to Moore, Melton, and Portman.
I don't mean to stoke the Lead/Supporting wars that occasionally occur here.
I really really want her to get nominated. She's in very good company in Group 5, but if she gets her 6th, a 7th nom won't sound so crazy.
Give her everything.
I am thoroughly baffled by the praise that this film still gets.
Sure, there's always been something rather sardonic about Haynes's films, but this is such a misfire. The film transports me back to the "tv-movie of the week" of the early 1990s. The artifice and melodrama, that Haynes so often uses to great effect this time is misplaced. Just like how the real life story this is based on thrilled and repelled news readers all over the world, this film tries to do the same, but the detachment is such an off pov that with the added slice of extra drama underlines the cheapness of the script.
Charles Melton's performance comes across as a shocking marvel in all of this; he manages to wrestle out recognisable human sentiments from the artifice and National Enquirer of it all.
I don't blame Portman and Moore for their performances, they fall victims to a ridiculous script while trying to Persona everything up a bit. It does not work for me, and in a year with a wealth of performances, I'll pass on Moore.
@ Thomas - I agree.
I did not like this movie at all. The imbalance of tone made the whole thing feel crass. Labeling a movie exploring such a dark and disturbing topic as a comedy felt really gross to me. Maybe that's the point, but I'm not a fan. Delving into such darkness with a campy score laid underneath made me legitimately confused as a viewer.
If there was a lesson to learn, I didn't learn one. The whole "the media is obsessed with exploiting juicy stories, totally disregarding the victims in the process" was obvious from the outset and didn't go anywhere from there. If the point was showcasing their tact being so scarce that they further victimize them in the process without a care, then I guess job well done...? I just don't see the point of this movie tbh, icky energy.
I wasn't a fan of Natalie's performance, the character didn't really make sense to me.
Charles Melton was my favorite part of the movie, he was the most human person.
I will say although Julianne's character was extremely unlikeable and almost cartoon-y in the way Natalie's was, it felt a lot more modulated and intentional. I could tell there was a LOT of history behind this woman's behavior that we will never know, and I do think she did a great job.
The only Oscar nod I would want this film to get is Supporting Actor and I guess at this point he's a bit of a dark horse after starting the season as a bit of a frontrunner.
So now we're justifying Category Fraud? If we do then in 1969 Paul Newman would have been Lead and Robert Redford would be Supporting? Olivier Lead and Michael Caine Supporting in Sleuth? Please, if the Academy does not put an end to this practice (and there are ways to do it), I ask you: When is Stanley Tucci going to win an Oscar? And Catherine Keener? And Denis O'Hare? This is outrageous! If you look back the last ten years you will see MANY category-fraudulent actors and actresses that have actually won the Oscar!
I applaud Matt Damon and Christian Bale when they refused to have one of them demoted to Supporting for Ford v Ferrari. They demanded to be both Leads. That or nothing.
I think Julianne is one of the greats, so it's easy for me to like this performance.
What I particularly love, however, is how she plays into the aspects of Gracie that appear to be an enigma to Elizabeth. Gracie is fragile and destructive, but she also understands herself and the strengths she needs to get by as someone with her history.
So many films are about "evil" characters, but I think Julianne Moore does a brilliant job of showing you one who, more or less, learned nothing from her actions and continues to cause pain. I think it would have been easy for Moore to suggest more, but she does a brilliant job at highlighting the emptyness and the banality effortlessly.
On another note, I'm not sure I buy Julianne Moore as a lead in this film. She's in less than 30% of the film, and the film uses her to advance Elizabeth's story. She's very good here, but this isn't her story.
She's a great actress who's given an interesting assignment so of course she's good—I just didn't like the movie, the script, almost nothing about May December worked for me. I love Todd Haynes and everyone involved so I'm not pleased to say that, it just left me cold and annoyed. So I wouldn't be upset if Moore missed a nomination.
Maybe I'd cheer it as a make-up supporting nomination for A Single Man.
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I watched "May December " yesterday again.
This film really deserves much more than it has been receiving.
Haynes is too smart and sophisticated for the average audience.
And Julianne (leading, absolutely leading) is marvelous.
Fragile, strong, desperate, confident, sparkling, all at the same time.
He last scene, her last line delivered to that astonished and speechless little bitch - "Insecure people... They’re very dangerous. Aren’t they. I am secure. Make sure you put that in there." - is the key to Grace's feelings and the way she found to fight and survive everyday.
In "May December, Julianne Moore delivers one of the best performances of the year.