With many films ripped from tabloid scandal, “I, Tonya” being one example, filmmakers approximate a grabby kind of cinematic tabloid energy while toying with the received public image of its notorious subject. That way it’s exciting to watch, even if it comes up short in finding any interesting psychological layers or ambiguities.

“May December” succeeds, in its destabilizing way, with a different approach. Director Todd Haynes and screenwriter Samy Burch base their fictional story on a real one: that of middle school educator Mary Kay Letourneau, convicted of second-degree rape of one of her sixth-grade students, who was 12 when the abuse began. Both real-life parties, Letourneau and Vili Fualaau, used words other than “rape” to rationalize what turned out to be a 22-year relationship, which included two children together, many years of prison time for Letourneau and ultimately a separation in 2019, a year before Letourneau’s death.

Loosely inspired by these events, “May December” goes its own way, adding a major dramatic complication. Julianne Moore plays the fictional Gracie, married with children, plus children from her previous marriage. In this reworking the scandal begins in a pet store where Gracie works with Joe, played in Haynes’ film as an adult by Charles Melton. In the film’s present tense, Joe is in his mid-30s; Gracie is some 25 years older. They live in Savannah, Georgia, and a film biopic (the second, we learn) is in preproduction on the subject of Gracie and Joe’s saga.

Natalie Portman portrays Elizabeth, the pretty-famous actress playing Gracie. She arrives in Savannah at the start of “May December” in a huff and on a research outing, having arranged to spend an unusual degree of time in close quarters with Gracie, Joe and their kids.

Straight off, in a testy, dodgy phone call with her apparent fiance, Elizabeth’s capacity for manipulation and self-absorption looms large. And when we get to know Gracie, we see that she, too, has created a life of manipulation and controlling instincts.

As Elizabeth insinuates herself, purring one minute, icy-cold the next, Haynes and company play the scenario’s machinations for equal parts sly black comedy and pathos that have a way of suddenly bursting into anguish. At one point Gracie, who keeps semi-busy with her life as a cake-baker for friends and neighbors, melts down over the cancellation of an order.

There’s more to it, of course: She knows that Joe has been spending time with the interloper in their midst. Stanislavski wrote the book “An Actor Prepares”; “May December” takes it step further, with Elizabeth working from a playbook that might be called “An Actor Prepares, Ruthlessly,” her research bleeding into a form of vampirism.

There are scenes that truly hurt, as in a dress-shopping sequence (one of Gracie’s daughters is graduating from high school) that Gracie, and Moore, turn into a master class in damaged-parent undermining. All the while, Elizabeth is taking mental notes for her own interpretive purposes. And with Haynes and cinematographer Christopher Blauvelt evoking framing and cutting strategies from Ingmar Bergman’s “Persona” and “Winter Light,” among others, there’s a layer of homage at work throughout “May December.”

It wobbles some, particularly when Haynes hits a joke too hard: At one point, with Gracie opening the fridge door and taking a long, fraught pause, she tops it with a line about not having enough hot dogs for a cookout. Here and throughout, the musical score by Marcelo Zarvos riffs on the swoony (and credited) Michel Legrand theme from “The Go-Between.” It’s a bold choice but the romantic froth has a way of dampening this story’s twisted contours.

Minor matters, though, with performances as good as Moore and Portman’s. Yes, “May December” exists in an uncomfortable realm. Haynes isn’t afraid of that, and American movies are better for it.

“May December” — 3.5 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: R (for some sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use and language)

Running time: 1:57

How to watch: Premieres in limited release Nov. 17; Netflix streaming from Dec. 1

Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.

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