Passes the Bechdel test

May December

Name: May December
Released: 2023

2023. Directed by Todd Haynes, written by Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
9 women characters. 8 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 10 scenes out of 88.
Yes 3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.

The film

Middle aged Gracie lives a happy, well settled life with her husband. Some years ago she was involved in an unsavory scandal but for her it is all in the past. Movie actress Elizabeth is on a visit to this home and she is on a mission. This visit is a part of her preparation to play the role of Gracie in a movie being made. As she goes about talking to the family members Gracie wonders whether Elizabeth will uncover some secrets from her past and will some skeletons be revealed.

Released: 01 Dec 2023
Genres: Comedy, Drama
Rated: R
IMDb: 6.7 / 10
Metascore: 86 / 100
Awards: Nominated for 1 Oscar. 44 wins & 185 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

Women
Men
Not in the cast list
Bigger name, more lines

Elizabeth 242 lines, woman
Gracie 183 lines, woman
Joe 178 lines, man
Charlie 32 lines, man
Georgie 28 lines, man
Mary 22 lines, woman
Tom 21 lines, man
Morris 16 lines, man
Roberto 15 lines, man
Honor 12 lines, woman

Full cast, 31 people

Natalie Portman as Elizabeth
Julianne Moore as Gracie
Charles Melton as Joe Yoo
Cory Michael Smith as Georgie
Elizabeth Yu as Mary Atherton-Yoo
Gabriel Barbosa as Charlie Atherton-Yoo
Piper Curda as Honor Atherton-Yoo
D.W. Moffett as Tom Atherton
Chris Tenzis as Aaron
Andrea Frankle as Rhonda
Mikenzie Taylor as Molly
Jocelyn Shelfo as Sofia
Mike Lopez as Ben
Joan Reilly as Lydia
Charles Green as Mr. Henderson
Christopher Nguyen as Tyler Ko
Adam Woods as Benny Kim / Boy Actor #3
Lawrence Arancio as Morris
Kelvin Han Yee as Joe Sr.
Julie Ivey as Mrs. Labriola
Drew Scheid as Cameron
Fatou Jackson as Kimme
Hans Obma as Roberto
Allie McCulloch as TV Movie "Gracie"
Evan Zhu as TV Movie "Joe"
Hailey Wist as Cassidy
James R Williams as Tour Guide
Rocky Davis as Young Actor
Hope Regina McElveen as Valedictorian
Derrick Butler as The Principal
Zachary Branch as Peter (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 3% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 88

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers

Scenes	Women's lines	Men's lines
1 to 2	0	0
3 to 4	0	0
5 to 6	4	0
7 to 8	14	1
9 to 10	0	2
11 to 12	21	1
13 to 14	20	1
15 to 16	10	0
17 to 18	9	7
19 to 20	0	3
21 to 22	0	0
23 to 24	68	13
25 to 26	15	11
27 to 28	14	18
29 to 30	35	0
31 to 32	7	7
33 to 34	0	0
35 to 36	0	0
37 to 38	5	8
39 to 40	1	8
41 to 42	32	40
43 to 44	0	3
45 to 46	0	6
47 to 48	12	3
49 to 50	16	0
51 to 52	10	6
53 to 54	10	15
55 to 56	9	11
57 to 58	12	12
59 to 60	3	4
61 to 62	0	3
63 to 64	0	5
65 to 66	5	29
67 to 68	33	21
69 to 70	36	7
71 to 72	18	18
73 to 74	17	21
75 to 76	18	16
77 to 78	2	0
79 to 80	0	0
81 to 82	0	1
83 to 84	7	8
85 to 86	0	1
87 to 88	17	4

The evidence

Straight from the script
Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: the passing scenes

The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.

GRACIE: Well. You don't know. I told you what happened when I met Judge Judy... RHONDA: That's true, these Hollywood types. GRACIE: That's two.

ELIZABETH: Hi. GRACIE: Here...

GRACIE: I knew it. By now I have a sixth sense about these things. ELIZABETH: What is it? GRACIE: It's a box of s-h-i-t. We haven't gotten one in months, but, it's just par for the course. Don't look so shocked! ELIZABETH: Do you know who sent it?

ELIZABETH: Um, sure. GRACIE: Oh look who's here! Cecile, don't you look pretty... Please, enjoy yourself, do what you gotta do, look around, talk to people, go get yours… ELIZABETH: Great.

GRACIE: So why do you want to play me? ELIZABETH: Well... I'm very drawn to emotional complexity. GRACIE: What a funny answer. ELIZABETH: Is it? I guess, when they sent me the script I thought-- here is a woman with a lot more to her than I knew from the tabloids, and our cultu…

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 60 are women's.

480 lines from women, 314 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

9 women and 11 men in the cast. 8 women and 10 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

A woman speaks the first line. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 43 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 60% of the words (4,420), men 40% (3,002).

Exhibit E: the test the other way

Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.

Conversations between two named characters

Two women

Two men

Exhibit F: behind the camera

9 of the 18 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 42% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Todd Haynes (man)
Written by: Samy Burch (woman)
Story by: Alex Mechanik (man), Samy Burch (woman)
Produced by: Jessica Elbaum (woman), Will Ferrell (man), Christine Vachon (woman), Natalie Portman (woman), Sophie Mas (woman), Grant S. Johnson (man) and 2 more
Shot by: Christopher Blauvelt (man)
Edited by: Affonso Gonçalves (man)
Music by: Marcelo Zarvos (man)
Production design by: Sam Lisenco (man)
Costumes by: April Napier (woman)
Cast by: Laura Rosenthal (woman)