Hollywood’s youth obsession is draining the life from films

Can anyone name the actors in the new Alien: Romulus movie? No, me neither. Which seems odd for such a massive franchise, but then I struggle to name a single film star under the age of about 35, and I consider myself a movie buff.

As is often the case with the release of a new sequel, I returned to the original for reappraisal. Yes, Ridley Scott’s masterwork is still frightening and expertly paced, but what makes the film exceptional is the diversity of the acting talent. And by diverse, I don’t mean the sort of DEI casting-by-numbers that turns every movie into a shiny Benetton commercial. No, I mean that in the 1979 original, we witness the full gamut of acting talent available at the time. Classical thesps John Hurt and Ian Holm are on fine form, as is the burgeoning movie star Sigourney Weaver. Then there’s old-timer Harry Dean Stanton doing his thing alongside relative newcomer Yaphet Kotto, who played grumpy engineer Dennis Parker.