Todd Haynes makes dressing up, copying a voice and keeping up appearances matter. We rate him highly for the performances he draws out, though his elaborate storytelling sometimes gets between us and the people on screen.
Fi1m perspective
In May December (2023), Julianne Moore's Gracie opens a fridge and worries about having enough hot dogs. Marcelo Zarvos's piano treats the shortage as a calamity. We laughed, then felt uneasy that a household built on abuse could look so ordinary. Haynes lets Gracie take her domestic concerns seriously, however absurd the music makes them sound.
Haynes used Barbie dolls in the short Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1987), before making his feature debut with Poison (1991). Poison helped define New Queer Cinema. Moore's work with him began on Safe (1995), and the partnership remains central to his ability to make difficult behaviour believable. With Far from Heaven (2002) and Carol (2015), period melodrama brought his work wider attention, while continuing his interest in people constrained by how they are expected to behave.
In Velvet Goldmine (1998), that concern becomes the freedom a glam star can offer a fan. Jonathan Rhys Meyers gives Brian Slade's extravagant appearance enough seriousness for the longing behind it to matter. Haynes allows dressing up to look ridiculous and still be worth doing. His screenplay is less assured: the investigation keeps interrupting the people we want to spend time with. James Lyons's editing must manage its changes of direction, and the repeated rearranging becomes fussy; the music and performances earn our recommendation despite it.
May December is tighter and nastier about imitation, with Natalie Portman's actress Elizabeth studying Gracie's lisp and mannerisms for a role. Working from Samy Burch's script, Haynes makes their encounters funny without making either woman reassuring company. Christopher Blauvelt's cinematography puts them together in mirrors, making their growing resemblance hard to miss without requiring another explanation. Production designer Sam Lisenco gives Gracie a bright house and a kitchen island from which to preside; the comfortable rooms make her settled self-pity more unpleasant.
We would start with May December, particularly for Charles Melton's performance as Joe. It is the drier, crueller Haynes, so do not expect much comfort from the household routines. Keep Velvet Goldmine for an evening when the music can excuse a few detours.
Biography
Todd Haynes is an American film director and screenwriter. He was born on 2 January 1961 in Los Angeles, California.
Haynes first gained attention with the short film Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1987). His feature debut Poison (1991) won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and is regarded as a key work of New Queer Cinema. Subsequent films include Safe (1995), Velvet Goldmine (1998), Far from Heaven (2002), for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay, I'm Not There (2007), Carol (2015), Wonderstruck (2017), Dark Waters (2019) and May December (2023). He has also directed the miniseries Mildred Pierce (2011) and the documentary The Velvet Underground (2021).
Haynes studied at Brown University. He has frequently collaborated with producer Christine Vachon and actress Julianne Moore.
