As I sit here today, I’m the oldest I’ve ever been in my entire life. And here’s the worst part: I’m the oldest I’ve ever been in my entire life

Stout Cortez: I’ve been young my entire life, but I'm now the oldest I've ever been in my life.

Stoutez: Being young was kind of an important part of my identity, like “being smart” or being athletic” Cortez says he's now in his late 30s and feels a little bit “not young” anymore.

He says Wes Anderson's films seem like precious antiques amid the flea market of late-stage Hollywood rot.

Getting older doesn’t scare me, embracing these things seems congruent with older-ness, but as I struggle with the idea of not being young, I’m considering how the concept of “focus” can provide a unifying force, not unlike how a parabola orients itself around a single point.

"Growing up" isn’t actually becoming like our parents, it’s realizing that our parents were themselves just trying to live up to an expectation of adulthood they saw in their parents.

Adulthood is a never-ending string of performances from scared kids who ache for the better lives they could have had but labor to bring honor to the ones they do have.

In The Grand Budapest Hotel , Anderson actually hands us the key to appreciating all his movies.