An Ugly Truth - - May December (2023, USA, Color, 117 min)

Not recommended. This is painful because - - although the output of director Todd Haynes (Carol) is uneven - - Natalie Portman (Closer) and Julianne Moore (The Hours) are wonderfully talented, and Portman produced May December. But this is a nasty movie.  Despite this, the many nominations and awards for tyro Charles Melton (Bad Boys for Life) seem reasonable. Melton plays the husband of Moore, and the father of her child from a romance that started when he was 14. Yuck. The tale is adapted from the true life of Mary-Kay Letourneau and her 12-year-old former student. Even more yucky. Portman and Moore play their characters minus any display of moral complexity . . . despite the obvious and well-played confusion/anguish of the object of their lust. Perhaps, then, this is the intention of Haynes . . . to mock two white women who seduce a young man of color. So what . . .  it's not a story worth telling.