When introducing this film, Amy Taubin warned the crowd against the impulse to laugh at this movie, to not take the dramatic irony as comedy. Yet somehow the crowd was laughing the entire time! Maybe I’m just a joyless freak.
My first Todd Haynes film was May December (sorry!) and I remember forcing myself to chuckle along with the crowd at some of the more absurd or surreal moments. I worried I was missing something. I’ve seen enough of his movies now to be convinced that I’m right and everyone laughing like they’re watching a comedy is wrong. We’re in an epidemic of unseriousness. CONTROL YOURSELF!
