“May December” is one of the most disturbing movies I’ve watched in recent years. I’ve only been that unsettled the entire duration of a film a handful of times. Yet, I couldn’t stop watching, in part, because it also has one of the most compelling and heartbreaking performances I’ve ever seen. Charles Melton, previously known mostly for his role in the teen drama “Riverdale,” has received widespread acclaim and won numerous awards for his part in the film. Though Melton has not received an Oscar nomination for the role (widely considered to be a snub), “May December” has been nominated for best original screenplay at the 96th Academy Award. Melton, despite his start in bad television, has more than proven his capability as an actor.
With Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman acting alongside Melton, the film doesn’t hold back in depicting the tragic realities of abuse. Melton’s character, Joe Yoo, is a husband and father in his 30s. His wife Gracie, portrayed by Moore, is 23 years his senior. The film quickly reveals that Gracie initiated a relationship with Joe when he was only a middle schooler, gave birth to their first child in prison and married Joe after her release. Portman portrays Elizabeth Berry, an actress who is set to depict Gracie in an upcoming movie. It’s all incredibly disturbing to watch unfold.
Melton easily could have been overshadowed by Moore and Portman. Both are seasoned actresses and their performances are distinct and elicit strong reactions in their own right. Moore, in particular, is terrifying — down to her smallest mannerisms. If Melton hadn’t similarly risen to the occasion, however, the movie would have suffered. He’s the emotional center in a story with dark subject matter and the only character you truly root for.
What makes Melton so compelling as Joe is his level of care to the performance. In every scene, he seems like a teenage boy who’s been swapped into the body and life of a man. His body language is contained and nervous; in one scene he offers Portman’s character a curt “get home safe” before abruptly walking off when he realizes he doesn’t know what to say to her. When she asks if she can stop by his work to see what he does, he tells her to contact Gracie, saying “She’s better about that stuff.” Wrapped up in his uncertainty is a curiosity about a world he doesn’t quite understand. He’s still an adolescent trying his best to be a grown-up.
“May December” was released the same year that Melton acted in CW’s “Riverdale” for the last time. To me, this makes Melton an interesting case study. Going from bad television (more on that in a second) to an Oscar-nominated film in the same year is an impressive feat and raises questions about what a career trajectory can look like for an actor. Are there seeds of his potential even in Riverdale or did he need something better to push him to be better?
Melton joined the cast of Riverdale in its second season as Reggie Mantle, replacing Ross Butler who left the role due to his part in “13 Reasons Why.” Melton’s character, in the show’s early seasons, is the captain of the high school football team and a pretty standard jock — the kind to only be seen in a letterman jacket and shove nerds into lockers before stealing their lunch money.
Admittedly, I’ve only watched a couple of episodes of Riverdale and a handful of clips online, so I may not be the most qualified to make a judgment call on the quality of Melton’s performance in the show. Nonetheless, all Riverdale performances seem to fall into one of two categories: someone capturing all the weight and nuance of a community theater audition on screen and someone doing their best with a poorly written line. Melton, by and large, falls into the second category.
Though the signs of his full potential may not have always been present in Riverdale, it’s understandable. There’s only so much one can do with a line like: “Let’s settle this once and for all. We’re both bulldogs who, like wolves, support the alpha. Right now, we risk splitting our boys’s votes, which I told Josie I could deliver. Hence, this contest.” Melton delivers this as his character, shirtless, challenges his teammate to a locker room arm wrestling contest. Honestly, I respect Melton for getting scripts like this and continuing to show up to work for six years.
“Riverdale truly was my Julliard,” Melton said in an interview with i-D. Take that with whatever level of sincerity you think he said it with.
Interestingly, though, part of the character arc of Melton’s character is that his hyper-macho stems from his relationship with his physically abusive father. In the scenes dealing with the subplot are the glimmers of “May December.” When his father chews him out for a small blunder on the football field during practice, Melton looks like an overgrown boy in front of someone much smaller than him. I couldn’t help but be reminded of Melton as Joe Yoo. Still, in “May December,” he’s far better.
As Portman’s character slowly morphs into Gracie, unnervingly sympathizing with and emulating in her more noticeable ways, even copying the mannerisms Moore uses in her portrayal of the character, Melton depicts a man slowly realizing he’s in a cage he should never have been put in. Finally, he starts to see Gracie for who she is: the woman who both took his innocence and has kept trapped in the thinking of a child.
“I’m saying, what if I was too young?” Joe nervously asks Gracie at the film’s climax.
“Well, you seduced me.” Gracie replies.
“But I was 13 years old.”
Only through acknowledging his stolen childhood, can Joe begin to grow up. A couple of scenes later, a butterfly that Joe has kept in a cage and has been tending to emerges from its chrysalis. Your heart breaks for Joe as he becomes aware of his condition and you desperately hope he can escape. Well done, Charles Melton.
According to Melton in an interview with “The Hollywood Reporter,” Todd Haynes, the director of “May December,” had never seen “Riverdale” nor did he know who Melton was when he auditioned. Melton got the script and used it to submit an audition tape. After submitting another audition tape when he’d gotten feedback from Haynes, Melton was ultimately cast.
Inherent in a show like “Riverdale” is a hard ceiling. You can only be as good as the show lets you be. Sometimes, an actor might simply need a better script. I’m glad Melton bided his time on Riverdale so that he could finally be given the chance to do something greater. It would’ve been a loss if he’d given up on acting and packed it up and gone home after one season.
I wonder how many other actors are biding their time waiting for the right script to land in their hands, and I wonder how many of them will get it. Regardless, Melton is a diamond in the rough — and even if you don’t know how many more are out there, undiscovered, it’s still magical when you find one.
“May December” is currently streaming on Netflix.