Is "May December" true crime?
the true crime that's worth your time
“I don't know if May December qualifies as true crime, but I thought that was pretty spectacular.” That’s a quote from one of the respondents to our end-of-year best of questions (coming soon to the pages of Best Evidence!) That’s a sentiment we’ve heard several times lately. The Netflix movie has been characterized as based on the Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau case; and some publications even describe it as both about the case and about true crime coverage of the case.
Having watched the movie, I don’t know about that. The themes I picked up were less related to true crime than to feminine rage and toxicity and loss of self; I’m sure I’m not the first person to say that I got more Single White Female than All American Girl. Which is available in full on YouTube, here ya go:
The line between crime fiction and true crime has grown increasingly permeable in recent years, as we’ve discussed here a number of times. But May December, to my eye, doesn’t have enough in the way of facts to get that designation — or do the themes is raises transcend the details of any one case, making it fair game for the true crime genre?
I have been thinking about this for nearly a week, and am eager for your perspective. What do you think: does May December “count”? These days, where do we draw the line to say, “nope, dog, that’s just crime fiction and that’s OK.”? — EB