This article contains mentions of sexual assault and grooming.

Summary

• May December tackles uncomfortable truths with dark humor, similar to Todd Haynes's previous work, exploring themes of sexual manipulation and scandalous journalism.
• Other movies, like The Tale and Una, delve into the trauma of grooming, leaving lasting scars on the victims and emphasizing the need for their voices to be heard.
• Movies such as An Education and Velvet Goldmine also explore complex relationships with age gaps, humanizing the individuals involved and addressing the role of tabloid journalism.

Todd Haynes’s May December ranks among the best movies to tackle themes like sexual manipulation and scandalous journalism, so there are plenty of comparable movies to watch if you like the 2023 drama. With the film addressing particularly discomforting truths with a pinch of dark humor, it is reminiscent of similarly acclaimed movies, including Haynes’s previous work, known for their multi-genre experimentation with such realities. These movies may likewise derive multiple interpretations of the trauma that accompanies grooming. Movies about the inner turmoil of Hollywood royalty also deserve to be mentioned, considering how the lead characters of May December (played by Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore) are emotionally turbulent actresses.

With May December based on the true story of teacher and sex offender Mary Kay Letourneau, the Netflix drama features Moore as Gracie, a woman married to the same man whom she had sexual relations with years ago when he was a minor. Portman plays the aspiring actress Elizabeth, who shadows Gracie to play her part in an movie. Their subsequent interactions reveal some uncomfortable secrets, with Elizabeth also glimpsing into her own past. Sensationalist journalism is also not spared in exploring Gracie’s life. With the retrospective viewpoints of its characters and their real-world implications, many other dialogue-driven dramas explore similar themes as May December.

9 The Tale (2018)

Available to stream on Max and DirecTV

With Laura Dern offering one of her career-best performances, the HBO movie The Tale is a powerful work of documentary fiction with writer-director Jennifer Fox exploring her experience of facing grooming through Dern’s protagonist. The Tale focuses on the attempts of a documentary filmmaker to interview victims of sexual assault while tapping into repressed memories of her childhood trauma. Not an easy watch, The Tale’s flashback sequences tap into the scars that a groomer can leave on someone for life. The age gap in May December is similarly drawn out from a true story with the movie empathetically delving into the past of one such illicit relationship.

8 Grey Gardens (2009)

Available to stream on Max and DirecTV

Grey Gardens covers the decay of the titular house that belonged to yesteryear American socialite and cabaret performer Edith Bouvier Beale and her aged mother Edith Ewing Bouvier. Boasting prominent social connections in their heyday, the mother-daughter duo falls out of the public eye with the ruins of Grey Gardens ironically representing their decline. As a documentary crew attempts to cover their story, both get apprehensive about how they will be seen after all these years. These fears of being maligned by the media are ever-present in May December with Gracie’s controversial life bringing out the exploitative side of journalism, making matters worse for everyone else involved in her life.

Grey Gardens is a dramatization remaking the iconic 1975 documentary of the same name.

7 Carol (2015)

Available to stream on Netflix and Kanopy

An older woman on the brink of divorce and a younger woman still seeking a purpose in life — when these two characters cross each other’s paths one snowy Christmas, a tragic romance blooms between them. Released almost a decade before May December, Carol proved Todd Haynes’s gift at helming ionate charactefr-driven stories without any flashy theatrics. The narratives are different in each case but both movies perfectly exemplify the director’s approach to bring out the best out of his leads. Be it the case of Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara in Carol or Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman in May December, both pairings strongly complement each other.

6 The End Of The Tour (2015)

Available to stream on Kanopy and DirecTV

This A24 comedy about an introspective interview between a Rolling Stone journalist and ominous author David Foster Wallace draws parallels with May December not because of the media angle, but primarily because of the life-changing conversation at its core. May December is primarily driven by the interactions between its two protagonists, with Elizabeth attempting to get into Grace’s head to accurately portray her on screen. While Jesse Eisenberg’s music reporter isn’t that insistent on getting answers, the interviews he has with Jason Segel’s Wallace end up proving how some conversations can indeed be life-changing. In May December too, Elizabeth gets affected by her conversations with Grace in some unprecedented ways.

5 The Hunt (2012)

Available to stream on Prime Video, Kanopy, Magnolia Selects, Pluto TV, Plex, The Roku Channel, Vudu, Crackle, and Tubi

A teacher’s life turns upside down when one of his young female students says an innocent little lie, accusing him of lewd conduct. The Hunt presents a gritty look at mob justice and how susceptible children’s minds can be in their early years. And yet, Thomas Vinterberg’s hard-hitting Danish film doesn’t paint children as gullible either. In May December, the tables are turned as Joe did face sexual grooming when he was 13, a truth that he finds hard to come to with as he grows up. The complexity of children’s views on sexuality that The Hunt presented is further fleshed out in Todd Haynes’s drama.

4 The Diary Of A Teenage Girl (2015)

Available to rent on all major VOD platforms

Playing out as a satirical take on Lolita-esque stories, The Diary of a Teenage Girl is powered by Bel Powley’s heartwarming performance as the titular teen. She plays 15-year-old Minnie, an aspiring cartoonist who enters a sexual relationship with her single mother’s boyfriend. As a dark comedy of errors ensues, The Diary of a Teenage Girl also pays special attention to Minnie’s emotional dilemmas with sexual liberation. The gender roles are reversed with Charles Melton's May December character Joe where it’s the teenage boy who gets swayed by a groomer. Joe’s backstory is similarly handled with care to show how adolescents can be misguided as they come of age.

3 Una (2016)

Available to stream on Peacock, Starz, and Kanopy

After years of confusion and fear, the titular heroine in Una decides to confront her much older neighbor about a relationship they pursued when she was only 13. An impactful commentary on gender and age politics in sexual grooming, Una doesn’t shy away from exploring the complexity of such relationships. And much like May December, Una thankfully doesn't rely on any explicit shock value. Todd Haynes’s film takes satirical jabs at over-the-top journalism that can strip the victim away from any individual agency. Una similarly emphasizes the need for the victim to have a voice instead of just being reduced to a sob story.

2 An Education (2009)

Available to stream on Hulu and The Roku Channel

The controversial relationship at the core of May December has its fair share of complexities, humanizing both individuals involved in this arrangement. An Education takes an approach to portraying such relationships with notable age gaps but with some crime caper twists. Carey Mulligan offers a breakout performance as the teenage girl Jenny Mellor who falls for Peter Saarsgaard’s older conman David Goldman. A delightfully dark coming-of-age drama, An Education is also comparable to May December in the sense that it is also inspired by a true story. Nick Hornby’s screenplay is based on British journalist Lynn Barber’s schoolgirl affair with the conman Simon Prewalski.

1 Velvet Goldmine (1998)

Available to rent on all major VOD platforms

Nearly every Todd Haynes movie ranks involves recurring themes present in his multi-decade career. It’s interesting how Haynes's exploration of tabloid journalism played a major role in his 1998 glam-rock tribute Velvet Goldmine before he took on the sensationalist nature of crime journalism in May December. The latter centered on the media coverage of Gracie and Joe’s relationship, which only ends up threatening the privacy of a younger Joe, while Velvet Goldmine particularly focuses on the press-induced pressure that a norm-defying rockstar goes through. With enough style and substance, Velvet Goldmine deserves to be revisited if new Haynes fans need more recommendations after May December.