Todd Haynes’s unfolds in a dressing room where the character Gracie, a tabloid media subject, is reflected in a mirror. Between Gracie and her reflection is Elizabeth, the actress who will play her in a film about the scandal that began decades earlier. The actress begins to mimic Gracie’s mannerisms. Meanwhile, Gracie delivers a backhanded compliment to her teen daughter about her bravery in showing her arms in the graduation dress she’s trying on in the store. The effect of the actress studying and regurgitating Gracie in real-time as the mother imparts harmful cultural mores about women to her daughter while it’s not clear which is the real Gracie and which
