Mary Kay Letourneau: Last News

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic In the experimental montage that opens “Persona,” a bare-chested teenage boy caresses a screen upon which the faces of two women slowly morph back and forth. It’s easy to imagine Todd Haynes being tempted to start his deep-as-you-want-to-go rabbit-hole drama “May December” the same way, seeing as how this endlessly fascinating movie focuses on the blurring of the lines between a Hollywood star (Natalie Portman) and her Heartland subject (Julianne Moore), who was caught in a sexual relationship with a 7th grader at the age of 36. The movie wants to know: Can playing this Mary Kay Letourneau-like tabloid sensation really answer what makes such a woman tick? A heady director whose entire oeuvre feels ripe for film-studies dissertations, Haynes makes movies not merely to be watched, but to be analyzed and deconstructed after the fact. From the rich Douglas Sirkian pastiche of “Far From Heaven” to the queer twist on classical “woman’s pictures” provided by “Carol,” his style can be chilly and distancing. Not so “May December.” As layered and infinitely open-to-interpretation as any of his films, it’s also the most generous and direct, beginning not with Ingmar Bergman references (those come later), but with footage of monarch butterflies. They’re symbols of transformation, too, but also something nice to look at (and listen to, underscored by a lush reworking of the piano theme from “The Go-Between”) before these two women meet.

Selome Hailu ID and Discovery+ announced an extensive slate of true crime specials, original series and reboots, including a special about the alleged crimes of Armie Hammer and his family.“House of Hammer” (working title) will examine different scandals over the course of five generations of Hammer’s family. The special uses “a trove of archive and interviews from survivors and family members” to investigate “a dysfunctional dynasty with its male characters exhibiting all the devastating consequences of privilege gone wild.”In August, ID and Discovery will debut the specials “Menendez Brothers: Misjudged?,” which considers whether the 1996 conviction of Joseph and Erik Menendez for the murders of their parents may actually be the story of two abuse victims; “Who Killed Biggie and Tupac?” (working title) with new interviews and insight about the shootings of both rappers; “Mary Kay Letourneau: Notes on a Scandal,” which revisits the story of the 34-year-old teacher who was convicted for raping her 12-year-old student Vili Fualauu, who she later married; and “The Killer Nanny,” which reexamines evidence from the murder trial of British au pair Louise Woodward.

It takes audacity for an actress to play a high school teacher who grooms her student, but it’s someone such as Kate Mara who embraces the challenge to meticulously play such knotty femmes with no sweat results. Mara portrays such a protagonist – or antagonist depending on how you view it, which only underscores her canniness with her craft—in FX’s Hannah Fidell limited series A Teacher, which follows the build-up and fallout of a scandalous affair between an older woman and her pupil.

Vili Fualaau is reeling over the loss of his former sixth-grade teacher turned ex-wife, Mary Kay Letourneau.