An Archetypal Reinterpretation Is Among Us

Today’s audiences are bringing different experiences to different life stages. Less 30-somethings today are married, own a home, or have a child, compared to previous generations at the same age. The proportion of 25 to 34-year-olds still living with their parents has increased by more than a third in nearly two decades. Multiple sources report a cultural rise in age-gap dating and marriages. As a result, assumptions about age and life stage, as portrayed in Entertainment, are in some ways becoming less and less accurate.

One archetypal reinterpretation in particular, is getting its shine this awards season as two films underpinned by critique at the intersection of age and the female experience are at the center of the conversation: The Substance and The Last Showgirl. And these two represent just some of many of the year’s series and films starring pop culture’s leading female actors intentionally subverting age-based narratives. If you missed A Family Affair, Netflix’s RomCom in which Nicole Kidman has an affair with Zac Efron, perhaps Apple TV+’s Disclaimer made it your way, in which Cate Blanchett too has an intimate relationship with a younger guy. Or, maybe you settled into Lonely Planet, where Laura Dern and Liam Hemsworth stumble into an unexpected connection.

All of that Pamela Anderson The Last Showgirl press of going “makeup free” on the Golden Globes' red carpet, is part of the same push in The Substance. As Vogue put it, "The Substance takes the absurdity of beauty standards and turns the dial up to 100.” This moment of awards recognition suggests that perhaps one generation’s “midlife” is another generation’s prime.