Sometimes there’s news that breaks that makes us wish we had an article series called “Famous Directors: They’re Just Like Us!” Like, this trailer post for Todd Haynes’ May December, a new acid-tongued drama that premiered back at Cannes earlier this year and is gearing up for its big North American premiere later this week. Who does Haynes choose to round out the third part in his triad ensemble, alongside Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore? Why, Charles Melton, best known to CW viewers all across the country as Reggie Mantle. That’s right, we’ve got reason to suspect that Todd Haynes, director Carol and Far From Heaven, is a Riverdale fan. See? Directors! They’re Just Like Us!
Anyway, Netflix dropped a trailer for the movie earlier on Tuesday, and it looks pretty fucking good. But, like, it’s a Todd Haynes movie. What else did you expect?
Peep it:
Netflix synopses are the written equivalent of the three-second previews they show before trailers on YouTube now, so here’s a much deeper and evocative summary from the NYFF program:
“Elizabeth (Natalie Portman), a popular television star, has arrived in a tight-knit island community in Savannah. Here, she will be doing intimate research for a new part, ingratiating herself into the lives of Gracie (Julianne Moore), whom she’ll be playing on-screen, and her much younger husband, Joe (Charles Melton), to better understand the psychology and circumstances that more than 20 years ago made them notorious tabloid figures. As Elizabeth attempts to get closer to the family, the uncomfortable facts of their scandal unfurl, causing difficult, long-dormant emotions to resurface. From the sensational premise born from first time screenwriter Samy Burch’s brilliant script, director Todd Haynes (‘Safe,’ ‘Carol’) has constructed an American tale of astonishing richness and depth, which touches the pressure and pleasure points of a culture obsessed equally with celebrity and trauma. It’s a feat of storytelling and pinpoint-precise tone that is shrewd in its wicked embrace of melodrama while also genuinely moving in its humane treatment of tricky subject matter. Boasting a trio of bravura, mercurial performances by Moore, Portman, and Melton, ‘May December’ is a film about human exploitation, the elusive nature of performance, and the slipperiness of truth that confirms Todd Haynes’s status as one of our consummate movie artists.”
May December will have its stateside festival premiere on Friday, September 29, as the opening night film of this year’s New York Film Festival. You won’t have to wait too long to check this one out, though: It’ll land in select theaters on November 17 before it shows up in the “Suggested For You” queue of everyone who binged Riverdale on Netflix on December 1.