Is ‘May December’ a Comedy?

variety.com:

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic Every few years, the Golden Globe awards have a category hiccup. In 2015, the Ridley Scott/Matt Damon Robinson-Crusoe-in-space sci-fi movie “The Martian” was nominated (and won) for best motion picture — musical or comedy, even though the movie contained no songs and no one thought it was a comedy.

A month ago, in that same category, the Globes gave a nomination to “May December,” Todd Haynes’ acclaimed but hard-to-categorize film based, not so loosely, on the true story of Mary Kay Letourneau.

She, of course, was the sixth-grade teacher who spent seven years in prison after having been caught in a sexual relationship with one of her 12-year-old students, who she went on to marry and have a family with.

Categorizing “May December” as a “musical or comedy” is a lot more eyebrow-raising than calling “The Martian” one. In this case, though, the Globes at least have an ally: all the chatter on social media that has debated whether or not Haynes’ film is a piece of intentional camp. (Most critics, even those who love the film, seem to think that it is.) In addition, the nomination sparked a bit of a firestorm when outraged commenters asked how a movie that hinges on an adult’s predatory behavior — indeed, her statutory rape of a child (in the movie he’s 13) — could possibly be labeled a comedy.