Todd Haynes

Todd Haynes is back, immersing himself neck deep in the exact kind of melodrama that he has thrived on throughout his illustrious career. It’s excess ahoy as it be expected, and the screen crackles with the electric ferocity of Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman’s on-screen chemistry. Considering the icky subject matter, then, the film requires a fairly delicate balance; the subject of women sex offenders is not a common site of interest in screen culture. While the camp excesses of the film would in the hands of a lesser filmmaker perhaps push the film into the terrain of bad taste, in Haynes hands, there is enormous empathy for the situation.