‘May December’: Julianne Moore is coming for that Oscar bookend

Lily Gladstone (“Killers of the Flower Moon”) switching from Best Supporting Actress to Best Actress feels like some time ago now but the impact of that move can still be felt as the former category is the most open race we have this year. Such an open race, however, leads to excitement and surprise, leaving the door open for any number of contenders to take the lead in this race.

And no performance deserves to be out in front more in this category than Julianne Moore‘s role in Todd Haynes‘ “May December.” Moore collaborates with Haynes again after they worked together in several movies including “Far From Heaven,” but Netflix’s “May December” is a bold new entry in their canon that you can now catch in US theaters after it released on November 17. The movie will drop on Netflix on December 1.

Moore stars as Gracie, who is in a relationship with the much younger Joe (Charles Melton) after they struck up an affair when he was just 13 and she preceded to have his baby while in prison. Their life is disturbed, however, when Natalie Portman‘s Elizabeth, an actress, visits them in order to do research about the couple’s scandalous past. Currently, we are predicting Da’Vine Joy Randolph (“The Holdovers”) to win this category while we think Emily Blunt (“Oppenheimer”), Danielle Brooks and Taraji P. Henson (both “The Color Purple”), and Jodie Foster (“Nyad”) will also be nominated. However, watch out for brilliant Moore, who not only deserves a nomination but possibly deserves to even win the whole thing.

This would Moore’s sixth Oscar nomination. She was previously nominated for Best Supporting Actress in 1998 for “Boogie Nights” and in 2003 for “The Hours.” She was also nominated for Best Actress in 2000 for “The End of the Affair,” in 2003 for “Far From Heaven,” and in 2015 for “Still Alice.” She won for “Still Alice.” So, we know that the academy likes her. That helps a lot. When a category like this is so up in the air and voters may not know who to vote for, having a familiar face and a good awards history is so helpful. Moore will be an easy person to vote for her as opposed to a lesser-known actress. She’s the easy and obvious choice.

Haynes has proven himself adept at directing actors to Oscar-nominated performances. He directed Moore to a Best Actress nomination in 2003 for “Far From Heaven.” Five years later, Cate Blanchett was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in 2008 for Haynes’ “I’m Not There.” Blanchett was then nominated for Best Actress for “Carol” in 2016. Rooney Mara also earned an Oscar bid — for Best Supporting Actress — for “Carol.” This shows that Haynes has a proven track record of earning Oscar nominations for his actors, while “Carol” showed that he can churn out brilliant lead and supporting performances from his actresses. He could do that again here with “May December” and Moore could benefit from that.

Moore delivers a critically acclaimed performance. Among her rave reviews: David Ehrlich (Indie Wire) opined: “Moore is predictably sensational, her soft-hard performance balancing Gracie on the knife’s edge between childlike fragility and matriarchal savageness.” Therese Lacson (Collider) noted: “When you have two powerhouses like Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore playing off each other, it’s hard to find any faults in the performances.” And Ali Benzekri (Awards Watch) observed: “Julianne Moore continues to prove that she is our most fearless actress today by the way she never hesitates to cross the hardest paths..”

Younger actresses tend to fare better in Best Actress. In the supporting category, however, it is the Hollywood veterans who receive the larger share of the love. Angela Bassett was nominated earlier this year for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” while Jamie Lee Curtis (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) won. Judi Dench was nominated the year before that for “Belfast.” In 2021, Glenn Close was nominated for “Hillbilly Elegy” while Youn Yuh-Jung won for “Minari.” And in 2020, Laura Dern won for “Marriage Story” while Kathy Bates was nominated for “Richard Jewell.” Moore would fit the bill here.

Veterans do well in this category and so, too, do colorful performances. Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress are both often populated by big, bold, flavorful performances and Moore’s is exactly that. Stephanie Hsu and Curtis were both nominated for “Everything Everywhere All at Once” earlier this year (Curtis won), Close (“Hillbilly Elegy”) and Maria Bakalova (“Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”) were both nominated in 2021, and Scarlett Johansson (“Jojo Rabbit”) and winner Dern (“Marriage Story”) were both nominated in 2020.

It also helps that Moore’s character has a dark edge — she is certainly at least partly a villain in this piece. Villainy does well in Best Supporting Actress, too — Hsu’s role in “Everything Everything All at Once” was villainous at least for one portion of the movie; both Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone had dark elements to their 2019-nominated roles in “The Favourite;” and Allison Janney played a colorful character bordering on being a bad guy when she won in 2018 for “I, Tonya.”

What a lot of these performances have in common with each other is that they have “Oscar moments.” Hsu has her crying speech right at the end of “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Dern has her monologue on fatherhood in “Marriage Story.” Bassett has her tearful speech about how much she’s lost in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” These are the moments that play in reels at awards ceremonies and it’s so important to have these scenes so that voters can latch on to them. It keeps the performance in their memory. Moore has these moments in her dueling scenes with Portman but also in her hysterical breakdowns with Melton, with whom she has one spectacular confrontational scene.

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