Below is the humble, unassuming, easy-to-chuckle Greta Gerwig of yore. The woman I knew and really liked back between the late aughts and mid-to-late teens. This is her Lynn Hirschberg W interview, posted on 3.21.17.

Remember what it was like six and a half years ago? It was the calm before the storm. Mao’s cultural revolution of the ’60s and ’70s hadn’t yet migrated to our shores, and being a somewhat older white industry male wasn’t necessarily a felony. The N.Y. Times (Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey) Harvey Weinstein expose wouldn’t break until 10.5.17. Woody Allen‘s Wonder Wheel opened at the N.Y. Film Festival that same month and nobody said boo. The woke virus was a thing, of course, but still simmering in the frying pan and not yet coursing through the cultural bloodstream.

Six and a half years ago, but more like four score and seven. We’re all living in an entirely different country now.

Oh, and “crying during Moonlight“? About what exactly? The handjob on the beach? About “Little” getting picked on because he was a sissy? That was ugly stuff, not teary. And I was picked on, by the way, so don’t tell me. Some unlucky kids experience a lot of cruelty from their peers. It’s awful but only the strong survive.

I was patient during the first two acts, but I definitely began checking my watch during the final third with Trevante Rhodes.