From the perspective of someone who’s seen his 20’s in the rearview mirror for several decades now, Alex’s troubles seem quaint, as does calling him “older” when he’s 29. He’s having sex with two amazing women and living rent-free while occasionally staring into a monitor at a blank “act 1, scene 1” screen. He plays video games, and he looks at porn, then at night, he hits the scene and gets altered on all manner of fun party substances. He’s frozen in time until reality sets in with tragedies and complications, and his long-overdue grappling with adulthood catches him face-first like a cold, wet, washcloth on a Monday morning.
As per usual, monogamy is hard. It’s one of the pursuits humans most often fail at, but at the same time, societies require pair-bonded monogamy as a foundational cultural standard. On the other hand, screenwriting would get a lot harder if cultures provided some monogamish wiggle room. There would be many more buddy road movies, I guess.
“…compelling characters the audience connects with deeply…”
When exploring common experiences, a filmmaker should stay focused on compelling characters the audience connects with deeply on some level. We all know these stories, but whether we care about them or not depends on how invested we are in the people. In Older, Pigden has accomplished this with tremendous grace and confidence.
Sometimes a film rings so true that one begins to wonder whether someone lived through the events depicted and has made a film as a kind of catharsis. Pigden confirms this in his crowd-funding pitch for the film: “This film is very personal to me, with a lot of the story connected to my own experiences. It touches on themes that everyone can relate to; we all have to face growing up and what that means, which is different for each of us and far from an easy prospect at the best of times!”
Older can be seen as a cautionary tale for young people that, sooner or later, the excesses of youth will fall flat and the revelation comes that real joy in life comes from getting sh*t done. It can also be enjoyed by actual older audiences as a sweet reminder of young romances… win, lose, or draw, the memories can still be sweet.
An interesting note to leave you on: Amazon Prime is distributing a heavily censored “international” version as the Kiwi original was too spicy.
For more, visit the official site for Older.
"…a cautionary tale for young people that sooner or later the excesses of youth will fall flat..."
