The ‘May December’ Genre Debate Is Ridiculous

When it comes to genre, we tend to think in terms of a strict binary. There are, after all, the symbolic comedy and tragedy masks of the Ancient Greek theater. Then there are the archetypal comic and tragic plays of William Shakespeare. And now, there are the much-debated comedy and drama award categories at the Golden Globes.

A bit of context: On Monday, Todd Haynes’ May December was nominated for Best Motion Picture and Best Actress in the Musical or Comedy categories at this award season’s Globes—and Twitter’s film fans remain in a state of total uproar about it. “May December nominated for ‘musical’ and 'comedy' when it’s the only film I sobbed during this entire year," read one popular tweet. “May December being placed in Comedy at the Globes is baffling btw,” read another. And a third: “You’ll sing, you'll dance, you'll laugh—it’s this year’s biggest comedy musical about sexual abuse and mental illness: May December.”

Others chimed in claiming that, yes, May December is a comedy. “‘May December is not a comedy’ Oh really then explain this,” one person wrote next to a video of the film’s now-infamous, melodramatic hot dog line. Another wrote, “This May December discourse is really weird. People not reading the movie as a comedy in any way, simply because it's a story about abuse is making [me] genuinely concerned about media literacy.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.