“I Think You’re Rotten.” “I Think You’re Swell.”

There comes a time in everyone’s life, I’m guessing, when your points of reference 

start to resemble Barbara Stanwyck more than Aimee Lou Wood 

(point of reference: Aimee Lou Wood = White Lotus and she’s wonderful; 

Barbara Stanwyck = everything and she’s beyond.)

Chances are, if you’re younger than 40, you have no idea who Barbara Stanwyck is. Or Gary Cooper. Or Ida Lupino. Or Tyrone Power. And that’s a shame because they were originals. Prototypes. And they paved the way for people like Cate Blanchett and Bradley Cooper and Jodie Foster and Colin Farrell...who have paved the way for Zendaya and Timothée Chalamet and Ayo Edebiri and Paul Mescal...

And here’s a thing. It’s often been said that the old school studio system days created stars with media campaigns that had nothing to do with their actual talent or true-to-life stories...well, now we have Instagram...I rest my case. 

Anyway, be that as it may, there comes a point when you stop noticing the same way. When new voices are not grabbing your attention. When they’re not speaking the same language...or maybe it is the same language but with a different inflection, when their personal stories based on everything they’ve experienced by the age of 21 are just not that interesting.......

Wait. Until at least 42. Then we’ll care...and we’ll talk.

My point is this, I suppose. I love change and development and growth and inspiration, but don’t throw out the originals without seeing what they created. Everything comes from something and all creation is derivative in some way and inspiration is random at best. But when you see or hear or feel something that really grabs you and speaks to you and says, “Stop! Hold onto this! This is worth revisiting!” And in the recesses of your mind, it lives and flourishes and gives birth as something else...well, here we are.

So, enjoy the heck out of Aimee Lou Wood and everyone of her generation, but do yourself a favor and visit the land of Barbara Stanwyck where you’ll discover Double Indemnity and The Lady Eve and Ball of Fire and Christmas in Connecticut, and you’ll go, “Wow, that was something!”  

“Put me in the last fifteen minutes of a picture and I don’t care what happened before. I don’t even care if I was IN the rest of the damned thing - I’ll take it in those fifteen minutes.”

– Barbara Stanwyck