As the years creep up on AR (Anna) Nicholas, she knows that Hollywood no longer cares about her.
The 1975 Staples high School graduate spent her life in film. Growing up, she made home movies starring her younger siblings — and anyone else she pulled in — at her Sprucewood Lane home.
She rode horses with Staples classmate Linda Blair (“The Exorcist”), and Nell Newman, whose father Paul would arrive in his Porsche and shades, “and make everyone go nuts.”
Anna studied film at UCLA, then directed features and shorts.
Anna “AR” Nicholas
She has been friends for many years with Dale Basye. He wrote the film “Famous Agoraphobic Woman Tells All”; she directed it.
They often talk about movies. One day they discussed an Esquire article about how Hollywood ignores older viewers.
“I take offense when filmmakers and studios talk down to older characters, or make them wallpaper in a young person’s story,” Anna says.
“We thought okay, Hollywood may not be paying attention — but we are,” she recalls.
Then came an idea: a podcast where Anna and Dale watched movies and TV shows that might appeal to “older viewers like us,” and review them through “our older lens.”
Every week in “Uncertain Age” they take on a movie or show, and ask: Are there characters we identify with? Is the material annoying, cloying or depressing? (“How many films do we really need about young people watching their aging parents die of Alzheimer’s?” she asks.)
Are actors cast appropriately? Are older characters treated respectfully? Any possible triggers for people 50+?
They try too to help people navigate the constantly changing world of streaming, to help find material worth watching (and what to avoid).
Anna and Dale range widely, from classics and obscurities to new films.
Generally the films or shows they review must have actors over the age of 50, playing characters over 50.
The director could be over 50 — but they’re not interested if the subject is teenagers, like “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.”
However, if Sean Penn now has something to say about “Fast Times,” Anna and Dale might revisit the film from the perspective of one of its main characters.
They look at new films like “Moving On,” and classics like “Harold & Maude.”
They reviewed “The Great Beauty” — one of Anna’s favorites — not only because of the age of the central character (65), but because he’s reflecting back on his life.
Has he wasted it? Why did he stop writing? Those are the types of films the podcast explores.
As she gets older, Anna says, her identification with characters changes.
When she was younger, “Cocoon”‘s aliens, an the Steve Gutenberg character helping older folks, entranced her.
Now though, she identifies with “the guys wanting to feel young, and jumping into the pool to get the aliens’ energy.”
When she saw “Harold & Maude” as a teenager, she thought Harold was silly, and the old lady cute.
These days she empathizes with the devastating life Maude led, and how she wants to live a life of joy but die on her own terms.
“Uncertain Age” does not yet have sponsors. So Anna and Dale invented products they’d like to see, and produced “commercials” for them: eye drops that fix vision, creams that eradicate crepe-y skin, how to prevent spam from getting sent in the first place.
With Westport’s connections to films and TV, do any of “our” films qualify for her podcast?
“The Stepford Wives” would not be a good fit for “Uncertain Age.”
She did a dive into local actors, directors and themes.
“Hello I Must be Going” qualifies, she says, with Blythe Danner in the cast. But not “The Stepford Wives,” “The Swimmer” or other better known films.
She does hope to talk about any of Paul Newman’s movies — after he reached the half-century mark.
“Loving” — shot in Westport in 1970, with 50+ actors Eva Marie Saint and Sterling Hayden — might also qualify.
Meanwhile, Anna hopes to hear from “06880” readers about films and shows you’d like her to include. Click “Comments” below.
(Click here to learn more about, listen to and subscribe to Anna Nicholas’ “Uncertain Age” podcast. Click here for the website. To contact her, email info@uncertainage.co.)
(“06880” covers Westport’s entertainment scene — all the way out to Hollywood. Please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
