This is strictly second-hand, but last weekend one of the producers of Clint Eastwood‘s American Sniper (Warner Bros., 12.25) boasted to a journalist friend that it’s “Clint’s best film in 15 years.” It may be that (an impressive Sniper scene was shown a little before the chat) but the claim is imprecise and therefore suspicious. If you want to make an impression along these lines you have to (a) do your Wikipedia homework and (b) know your dates. 15 years ago Eastwood’s True Crime (a decent genre thriller but nothing stupendous) was released, and after that Space Cowboys (an amiable old-guys-in-space movie). What the producer probably meant to say was that American Sniper is Clint’s best film in ten years, or his best since Million Dollar Baby (’04). That makes sense.