Set in the late 1980s, amongst the generously proportioned single-family homes, manicured lawns, and plush interiors of the San Fernando Valley and its well-coiffed, immaculately dressed inhabitants, Todd Haynes’s haunting second feature depicts the descent into illness of placid housewife Carol White (embodied with subtle brilliance by Julianne Moore) as she develops increasingly severe symptoms, the cause of which baffle medical professionals. Haynes and cinematographer Alex Nepomniaschy imbue the sunny surroundings, shopping malls, and beauty salons with suffocating menace, suggesting both the material and the metaphysical toxicity from which Carol must attempt to escape.