Ara Osterweil on May December and Tár
Two recent dramas that pivot on the fraught convergence of consent, power, and desire have turned these tropes on their heads by inverting the gender of the potentially abusive adults. Todd Field’s Tár (2022) and Todd Haynes’s May December (2023) both center on complex adult female characters who fall for young paramours. In Tár, Cate Blanchett plays a world-renowned composer-conductor whose affairs with younger female musicians end up undermining her career. In May December, Julianne Moore plays Gracie, an aging belle once sent to prison for having an illicit sexual affair with a Korean...
Source: artforum.com
