Every few years, the Golden Globes have a category hiccup. In 2015, the Ridley Scott-Matt Damon sci-fi film “The Martian” was nominated (and won) for best motion picture — musical or comedy, even though no one thought it was a comedy. A month ago, in that same category, the Globes gave a nomination to “May December,” Todd Haynes’ acclaimed but hard-to-categorize film based, not so loosely, on the true story of Mary Kay Letourneau. She, of course, was the sixth-grade teacher who spent seven years in prison after having sex with one of her 12-year-old students, whom she then went on to marry and have a family with.
Categorizing “May December” as a “musical or comedy” is a lot more eyebrow-raising than calling “The Martian” one. In this case, though,…
