Is May December an Oscar contender?

Netflix's latest hit, Todd Haynes' film May December, is loosely based on the true story of Mary Kay Letourneau — an American sex offender and teacher who went to prison in the late '90s for initiating a sexual relationship with a 12-year-old student.

In the film, actors Julianne Moore and Charles Melton portray a couple living a normal suburban life, following a tabloid saga from decades ago. Their marital bliss is disrupted when a famous television actress, played by Natalie Portman, arrives to research her upcoming role in a movie about their past.

For this week's wrap panel on Commotion, culture critics Rad Simonpillai, Kathleen Newman-Bremang and Sarah-Tai Black join host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to weigh in on the psychological dramedy, and Netflix's dubious efforts at marketing it.

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, where the panel discusses the state of celebrity criticism, listen and follow the Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud podcast, on your favourite podcast player.

LISTEN | Today's episode on YouTube:

Elamin: Rad, we've got to talk about Todd Haynes, man. What does Todd Haynes do with this premise to make it more than just a standard retelling of a story that people already know?

Rad: Well, Todd Haynes is a filmmaker that on top of just telling a story about people and their digressions, he's also telling a story about how we consume those narratives, right? If you look at a movie like Far from Heaven, it's a remake of Douglas Sirk's All That Heaven Allows, essentially. He's engaging with 1950s melodramas there. In this movie, he's going into this narrative of a very scandalous May-December relationship, and he's applying all these distancing techniques so that we are coming into this analytically.

What Todd Haynes does best is he composes really powerful imagery. He uses mirrors and stuff to create this story about discovering sexuality as creating your identity, being a clear sort of Lacanian moment. He comes at it in every analytical way possible, where you realize you're not just consuming a story about a predatory woman taking advantage, crossing certain boundaries in a passionate relationship. You're also consuming a story about a performer crossing boundaries and pushing beyond the moral limits of what she should do in these situations.

Elamin: Sarah-Tai, I've gotta say, I was not ready to sit down and then emerge two hours later and go, "Oh, that was my favorite movie of the year." Where are you at?

Sarah-Tai: I mean, are you ever really ready to get fully Haynes-d? I've got to prepare. I think this is such a rich film. I'm still sitting with it; I want to marinate in it a bit more. But I think literally everything Rad has said is exactly how I feel. I think that this is one of his best films in a really long time, and such a beautiful, rich entry into his white women melodramas because it kind of explodes it by nature of what the story is telling. I think the performances are amazing. Julianne Moore, oh my gosh. Charles Melton, oh my gosh. Natalie Portman, you did good…. I really appreciated the analytical lens to this. I think if this was a more straightforward retelling of that story, I would not be interested at all.

Elamin: Yeah, I have to say that it completely knocked me out within maybe 10 seconds of starting it; it was just an immediate reaction to the movie. Kathleen, there's been a lot of debate about whether this is supposed to be a campy comedy or a serious melodrama. The people who think this is a campy comedy, I'm not sure we watched the same movie. But here's the thing: the Netflix marketing department seems a bit confused about what this movie is, because to promote it, they posted this image of a shirtless Charles Melton to one of their Instagram pages with a caption that was basically like, "Hey, look at this thirst trap." Can you just explain real quick to the audience why that is the wrong way to market this movie?

Kathleen: Listen, there is a time and place for thirst, especially in this film, which is based on Vili Fualaau and Mary Kay Letourneau and the fact that Mary Kay Letourneau groomed and raped this man. I think that it is completely inappropriate to then show a shirtless photo not just of Charles Melton, but a shirtless photo from the movie and say, "Look at how hot he is" — especially given the performance that Charles Melton gives.

He gives this really physical portrayal of someone whose youth has been stripped away from them. He kind of curls into himself. Charles Melton is 32 years old in real life. It feels like you're watching a teenager, and he is a grown man; he's doing that all through his physicality. That is beautiful and stunning, and to flatten that into a shirtless photo to promote it? Also, it's going to confuse the teenagers, potentially, who see that photo of Charles Melton and go to watch this film. I think it's irresponsible.

Elamin: You're getting something very different than that, yes.

Kathleen: You're getting something completely different. I think that Netflix just is trying to meme-ify all of their movies, and this is how something like this happens.

Sarah-Tai: Some intern is in trouble.

Kathleen: As they should be!

Elamin: Rad, Robert Downey Jr. was the heavy favourite for the best supporting actor Oscar. Charles Melton stepping into this race with the heat, are you all aboard the Charles Melton hype train?

Sarah-Tai: Yes.

Rad: I mean, Kathleen almost brought me over there, and not because I ever thought that he was a bad performer. It's just that when I walked out of this movie I was like, "Oh, Julianne Moore!" and stuff. And then when everyone was like, "Oh, Charles Melton!" Like, that was a good performance, but are we just loving the underdog story of this guy who we expected nothing from because he came from Riverdale? … There is also Robert De Niro in Killers of the Flower Moon.

Elamin: You know, I'm ready to call it for Charles Melton right now, but we'll see what happens.

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Stuart Berman.