Reposting of 2.2.15 HE review/discussion: “One of my last Sundance viewings was I’ll See You In My Dreams, a mild-mannered septuagenarian love-affair drama with Blythe Danner and Sam Elliott. We’ve all accepted the everything-older-is-younger theology (i.e., 70 is the new 60) and so it doesn’t exactly feel like a head-turner when Danner’s Carol Peterson, a widower somewhere around 70, hooks up with the same-aged Bill (Elliott), a mellow, white-haired dude who owns a boat. The only unusual and frankly unbelievable aspect is hearing that the slim, good-looking Peterson hasn’t been intimate with anyone for 20 years, which is when her husband passed.

“Everyone understands mourning and recovery, but pretty ladies in their 50s don’t become nuns because their husbands have died. Sooner or later they get back into it because sex is the nectar of life and the grand metaphor of appetite and engagement. Not schtupping means quitting on some level. It means you’re ‘too old’, and who wants to live a life that doesn’t include that intrigue? Not having sex is in the same boat as not enjoying good food, not hiking, not bike-riding, not petting your dog, not campaigning for a cause or a candidate, not laughing, not going to parties, not cooking, not visiting Italy, etc. It’s anti-life. Especially if you’re still slim and fetching, as Danner/Peterson clearly is.

We’re now three and a half months into ’15, and a glance at the calendar tells me that except for Alex Garland‘s Ex Machina (which I’ve seen and admired but have yet to review), there are no films of any real consequence opening between now and May 1st. So let’s call this a four-month assessment — the 20 best films from the first third of 2015. And let’s get rid of any distinction between theatrical, VOD and cable — if it opened on a reputable screen of any size between 1.1.15 and 5.1.15, it qualifies. And no distinctions between docs and narrative either. A good portion of the following were seen at a 2014 festival, on HBO or during Sundance ’15 — relatively few are 2015 theatrical newbies.

Disputes, additions and subtractions are encouraged. Pics are listed in order of value, preference, voltage, intrigue and in some cases importance:

First Quintet: (1) Alex Gibney‘s Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (HBO); (2) Douglas Tirola‘s Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon (Sundance ’15); (3) Yann Demange‘s ’71, (4) Asghar Farhadi‘s About Elly (no chance to review it yet, but Farhadi is a master — this is easily one of the most grounded, on-target and yet disquieting films I’ve seen this year); (5) Noah Baumbach‘s While We’re Young;

A few days ago I riffed about Dick Cavett’s Vietnam (PBS, 4.27), a riveting one-hour re-immersion into the anger and arguments against the Vietnam War during the early to mid ’70s. As I said before it’s a piece of stirring, well-ordered time travel. This morning I had a pleasant chat with Cavett about the show and other things. He mentioned that during a discussion following a Los Angeles performance of Hellman vs. McCarthy that only a handful had seen Dick Cavett’s Watergate, which aired last August. Cavett said that then and there he wished that PBS would put a bit more effort into letting people know about these shows. I understand why PBS marketers have used the image of a spiffily-dressed Cavett standing in front of what looks like a scene out of Francis Coppola‘s Apocalypse Now, but there’s something a wee bit odd about it. Cavett is a good fellow, sharp as a tack. Again, the mp3.

Yesterday on Salon Joan Walsh urged reporters and commentators to “stop calling Rand Paul a ‘libertarian.’ Stop it right now. ‘I’m not advocating everyone go out and run around with no clothes on and smoke pot,’ Paul said in 2013. ‘I’m not a libertarian. I’m a libertarian Republican. I’m a constitutional conservative.’

“See, 2016 reporters? He said it himself. He’s not a libertarian. Why keep the myth alive in tedious, insight-free campaign coverage?

“Think Progress’s Judd Legum runs exhaustively through the record, but here are a few highlights. First of all, he’s staunchly anti-choice, supporting the ‘Life begins at Conception Act’ and pretty much every other piece of anti-abortion legislation that’s come before him. He’s got a 100 percent rating from the National Right to Life Committee.