This week, we finally got around to discussing the movie everyone has been talking about: “May December,” a film “loosely inspired” by the Mary Kay Letourneau-Vili case. Directed by Todd Haynes and written by Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik, it stars Natalie Portman as Elizabeth Berry, an actress researching her role playing Gracie Atherton, a woman who became a tabloid celebrity in the ‘90s after being caught statutorily raping a 13-year-old boy who worked for her at a pet store. It’s now over 20 years later; Gracie (Julianne Moore) and the boy in question, Joe Yoo (Charles Melton), are married and soon will be sending their youngest children off to college. Elizabeth spends time with the family and gets to know their social circle in hopes of bringing something true to her performance as Gracie — a genuine insight into her psyche or the trauma that created her. Instead, boundaries get blurred, shaking the foundations of Gracie and Joe’s family.
On the podcast, we …
