In January, ‘May December’ could earn Natalie Portman Oscar nomination #4
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Natalie Portman is making something of a comeback with her lead role in Todd Haynes‘ “May December,” which was released in US theaters on November 17. The Netflix movie will drop on the streaming service on December 1 but head to the big screen now to catch Portman’s best role in some time. She is Elizabeth, an actress heads to the home of a couple played by Julianne Moore (Gracie) and Charles Melton (Joe) to do research about them for a movie based on their past. Their dark past?
The older Gracie had an affair with Joe when he was just 13 and eventually had his baby when she was in prison. Portman delivers a multi-faceted performance here as an actress who acts like a star, a journalist, a seducer, and, most impressively, as Gracie herself. Portman’s transformation into Moore’s Gracie is special. Critics have described Portman’s performance as one of her very best. Here’s just a sampling of her rave reviews:
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Esther Zuckerman (The Daily Beast) observed: “Elizabeth starts the movie as audience surrogate, entering this bizarro universe where everything is presented as normal but is actually truly fucked. And yet Portman slowly unveils that Elizabeth is too grappling with her own breaks in reality. Her journey—at times literally—mirrors Gracie, as Elizabeth starts to mime her subject’s moments. The scenes where they are in the same frame are unnerving, Portman nailing the awkwardness of mimicry… the most crushing, astounding sequence is an unbroken monologue Portman gives toward the end of the film as she tries to inhabit Gracie at her most monstrous. It’s a fabulous performance of a performance.”
David Rooney (The Hollywood Reporter) enthused about “an astonishing monologue delivered by Portman into a mirror in particular demands to be seen.” He continued: “The stealth monster in all this is Elizabeth, with Portman deftly balancing the character’s polished interpersonal skills with her ravenous ambition, making every nugget of information and every behavioral clue fair game as research material. In one early giveaway moment, she visits the pet store where Gracie and Joe were caught in the act, parking herself in the stockroom doorway and writhing with imagined sexual pleasure, recalling the more demented extremes of Portman’s ‘Black Swan’ turn.”
Ali Benzekri (Awards Watch) wrote: “Natalie Portman is a real star in ‘May December,’ literally and figuratively; her Elizabeth goes from curious, to funny, to mysterious, to unabashed and has a range of different and overlapping complex emotions before she finally gets to become Gracie. Because of the tricky and constantly shifting tone of the film, Portman’s work is divine in its unpredictability that turns the wish of understanding her (or even the slight attempt at it) into a pleasurable experience as she is intrigued by the complexity and gray areas.”
No surprise then that Portman is hot on the heels of the five actresses we are currently predicting will reap Best Actress nominations: Emma Stone (“Poor Things”), Lily Gladstone (“Killers of the Flower Moon”), Carey Mulligan (“Maestro”), Sandra Hüller (“Anatomy of a Fall”), and Fantasia Barrino (“The Color Purple”). Stone, Gladstone, and Mulligan might feel like locks but Hüller and Barrino should seriously watch out for Portman, who is on the precipice of breaking into the top five along with the likes of Margot Robbie (“Barbie”), Annette Bening (“Nyad”), and Greta Lee (“Past Lives”).
Elizabeth is a performative character (she’s an actress, after all) and, as such, Portman has plenty of those typical Oscar moments to shine. The aforementioned monologue is one but there’s also another wherein she answers a teenage boy’s question about filming sex scenes and goes down a rabbit hole about sometimes not knowing what is real and what is a performance. Those two scenes will stick with voters, especially when Portman contorts her face and her voice to sound like Moore’s Gracie.
Portman is an actress playing an actress playing a character (who also seems to be performing the entire time herself). This meta-quality adds depth and complexity that voters will appreciate. And we know that the academy likes films about films or the arts. There have been multiple performers who have been nominated for playing actresses, filmmakers, or creatives. Ana de Armas was nominated earlier this year for playing actress Marilyn Monroe in “Blonde,” while Cate Blanchett was nominated in the same year for playing a composer in “Tár.” Nicole Kidman earned a bid in 2022 for portraying actress Lucille Ball in “Being the Ricardos;” Andra Day was nominated for her role as singer Billie Holiday in “The United States vs. Billie Holiday;” Viola Davis reaped a nomination in the same year for her work as Ma Rainey in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom;” Scarlett Johansson was nominated in 2020 for playing an actress in “Marriage Story;” and in the same year, Renée Zellweger won as singer Judy Garland in “Judy.” Portman would be the latest in a long line of actresses nominated for portraying performers.
Portman is well-liked by the academy, too. She won Best Actress in 2011 for “Black Swan” (in which she played a ballet dancer, another performer) before adding a second Best Actress bid in 2017 for her portrayal of Jacqueline Kennedy in “Jackie.” She had been nominated for Best Supporting Actress back in 2005 for “Closer.”
Plus, 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, 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 Portman could benefit from that.
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