(CNN) — “You don’t dwell on the past?”

The question hangs in the air in a key scene in “May December,” as Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman cut and arrange flowers, sizing each other up. The unnerving, slow-burn Todd Haynes-directed film — hitting Netflix on December 1 after a limited theatrical release — pits the two women against one another in a small coastal town in Georgia that has been racked by scandal.