Every awards season has its narrative. And this year’s is forming around a handful of actresses, all in their late fifties or older, giving bravura performances in films that deal with the thorny complexities of aging, acceptance, and desire. "Babygirl," starring Nicole Kidman, spins an erotic fantasy out of the power exchange between a female executive and her much younger lover. Pamela Anderson’s rejection of beauty standards — and the subsequent reinvention of her public image — dominate coverage of "The Last Showgirl." And Demi Moore became an Oscars frontrunner when she told women to “put down the yardstick” in her Golden Globes acceptance speech for "The Substance."
The back half of 2024 did see a rise in artistic interest in the inner and/or sex lives of middle-aged (and older) women — The New York Times ran a trend piece about it, leading its discussion of horny fiftysomethings in pop culture by evoking the image of Kidman mid-orgasm. But the admiring, even celebratory, tone of these paeans to hot actresses remaining hot well past Hollywood’s traditional expiration date masks the shadow side of this phenomenon: The wizened, terrifying hag.
