Loosely based on the Mary Kay Letourneau scandal, the newest film from director Todd Haynes and producer Will Ferrell is an interesting look at what happens when an actor goes to research the person they are portraying in a movie and how the person and the people around them will react to the film. Todd Haynes, who has directed many great movies such as "Far from Heaven," "I'm Not There," "Carol," and "Dark Waters" does it again by tackling the aftermath of a serious topic and makes the audience question if we should feel for one of them after what they did years prior. The film was influenced by a fantastic movie titled "Persona," released in 1966 and directed by legendary filmmaker Ingmar Bergman. Both films have very similar premises. The only difference is that in "Persona," the actress has a speech disorder, and the second woman is a nurse hiding a secret. Haynes does a fantastic job paying tribute to some of Bergman's signature trademarks within his direction through the music and cinematography. Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore both deliver incredible performances in this movie. Portman is the actress researching for the film she's about to do, and Moore is the former teacher who had an affair with her student and is the focus of the movie Portman is starring in. Coming off of his six-year run as Reggie Mantle in the popular CW series "Riverdale," Charles Melton delivers an excellent performance as Julianne Moore's husband, who was also the student who was involved in the affair several years before the events of the film took place. Melton manages to hold his own with two acting legends by delivering a gut-wrenching and tragic performance because of his character's situation and how that affected him and the people around him. Thanks to Todd Haynes's incredible direction and fantastic performances from Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore, and Charles Melton, "May December" is a tremendous film that poses an interesting conflict. That being, when an actor does a biopic, he wants to learn and study as much as possible to play a real-life person and make everyone see their story. But how will the real person and those around them react to the film? Many people will say the performance achieved the goal, whereas others will say something different, and that's what's called having an opinion.
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