Jack Quick, Special to The Denisonian
A nursing home does not seem like the most ideal place to shoot a documentary. What story is there to tell anyway? Old people sitting by the pool all day, talking about old baseball and grandkids? To the average viewer, it feels like a part of life that is not worthy of its own documentary.
Filmmaker Lance Oppenheim begs to differ in his documentary, “Some Kind of Heaven,” which is set in The Villages, a renowned retirement home in central Florida.
In his documentary, Oppenheim introduces a few stories that run parallel in The Villages. Anne and Reggie, a couple married for 47 years, are having problems concerning Reggie’s use of psychedelic substances, ultimately leading him to accept an entirely different fictional version of reality due to his use of copious amounts of opioids, along with a court trial for the possession of those illegal substances. Barbara, a widow, is grieving the loss of her husband while also working full-time at The Villages and actively seeking a new partner. She has hardly any money saved to be able to retire and is still working long into her 60s. Finally, Dennis, an 82-year-old freeloader, is on the run from his past life in California, which was full of crime, and is hoping to find a wealthy woman to marry in The Villages. He lives in the back of his car and is not an official member of The Villages. As his money and luck begin to wear thin, he grows ever desperate to live the comfortable life that The Villages promises.
The Villages is marketed as an “Adult Disneyland,” but the stories told within the concrete walls of the swim-up bar tell different stories: ones of drug abuse, homelessness, existential crises and loss of reality.
The marketing for this film played a key role in my wanting to watch it. I thought the trailers made it seem like a thriller. Quite honestly, I think the marketing got the best of me because the actual screening was a bit less exciting than I anticipated. At the end of the day, it’s a documentary and it’s hard to predict what you’ll capture. At the same time, there are ways to build suspense that make the viewer feel something physically. The film had suspense, but not enough to make my skin crawl, or for me to be worried or fearful for the main character, which, to me, is the mark of a good documentary or suspense film.
That’s not to say the stories that were told were not interesting. I think that problems like drug abuse or loneliness are often associated with a younger demographic, and to see that those problems are not just a plague that can spread to younger people, but also people well into their lives, is empowering. Considering it is almost stereotypical to hear things like “Young people don’t work hard enough” or similar complaints from an older crowd, it really struck me to see older generations struggling with that same problem in this film. I think it goes to show that no one is immune to the problems that come with living, and there is no age cap on when issues like drug abuse and fear of homelessness can hit you.
The story was there and the execution was close. Overall, I’d give this film a 6.5/10.
Jack Quick ‘28 is a journalism major from Chicago.