May December and the Remediation of Tabloid Culture

Abstract

Upon its release last year, Todd Haynes’ May December (2023) received critical acclaim for its adaptation of the real-life scandal involving 34-year-old Mary Kay Letourneau and 12-year-old Vili Fuluaau. The film draws on the events and tabloidization of Letourneau’s predatory affair, critiquing the ways in which popular media creates scandals by “packaging real people as media characters for public consumption.” However, citing the distancing that Haynes and screenwriter Samy Burch have made from the film’s source material and living subjects, FQ columnist Laurie Ouellette questions May December’s disinterest in reflexively examining its own participation in these exploitative dynamics that it appears to critique. Does May December expose the sensationalist and extractive cultural logic of tabloid media—or regurgitate it?