Elderworld: A Hot New Trend in Cinema?

There’s a heartening new trend in cinema: Films that assume that there’s life after middle age. Suddenly AARP-age actors — and, more significantly, actresses — are starring in notable movies that portray seniors (is there a more cloying word?) as vital individuals in flux and working through challenging issues just like anyone else on the planet.

And these folks are perused by a loving camera as if liver spots were the new beauty patch.

In the recent I’ll See You in My Dreams with Blythe Danner, the tagline reads “A widow and former songstress discovers that life can begin anew at any age.” Good news, though you’d never guess from most recent films. In the world according to Hollywood, older actors are simply extras in stories about the young. Now, reversing that trend, is the marvelous 45 Years (opening in December) toplined by Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay, a drama about a long-time marriage in crisis. And the soon-to-be-released Youth with Michael Caine, Harvey Keitel and Jane Fonda, assembled for a more sardonic take on aging. Huffington Post