Some Kind of Heaven

Some Kind of Heaven

Behind the gates of a palm-tree-lined fantasyland, three residents and one interloper at America’s largest retirement community strive to find happiness.

  • Released: 2021-02-19
  • Runtime: 83 minutes
  • Genre: Documentaries
  • Stars: Dennis Dean, Lynn Henry, Anne Kincer, Reggie Kincer, Gary Schwartz, Barbara Stanton
  • Director: Lance Oppenheim
 Comments
  • mcdr3000 - 26 March 2022
    Need more information
    I think the movie-makers heard about this place and thought it sounded ghoulish and pathetic, and decided to prove these perceptions. The place doesn't stand a chance with the way the cameras work. But more importantly, the movie has no narration and strongly suffers as a result. Who were these residents before they got to "The Villages"? Do they have families? What are some stats about the place? The movie raises far more questions than it answers.
  • fauxscot - 22 June 2021
    No matter where you go, there you are....
    From a safe distance, far north of The Villages, this is as close as I want to get.

    It's kind of a joke... like moving north to Miami used to be. Get old, sell out, move to The Villages, shave a few points off the handicap, turn the crank, leave a widowed spouse, fade into the vast pool of roughly 100 billion humans that have ever lived most of whom died in well earned obscurity. Validate Camus and Kierkegard, even if you have no idea who they are.

    At least it's orderly. Clean. Neat. And it's a damned faithful analogy to American society in general, a meaningless march via materialism into nothingness and despair.

    But this isn't a comment about The Villages...it's about the movie, which I hated and still rated a 10. It does exactly what it intended to do, and very well. Left me to fill in the blanks and suss out the story fillers with my own biases, while painting pictures of the lightly enameled prettyness/pettiness of this place and this place/time for the puzzled twilight residents. To the degree it stimulates people to think beyond the raw mechanics of aging and into the generally dismal nature of the entire human condition of mortality and morbidity, towards a more considered valuation of our time and impact, it's a great public service.

    Is life really about pickle ball? Margaritas? Elaines beyond measure? Golf carts? Pot and coke? Palm trees and uniformity and stability of streetscapes? Images of gated community presence rivaling the traffic directors of the empty streets of North Korea? "Old" painted on new buildings in place of history? Is that what all the stress of career and family comes down to? This movie megaphones a resounding "No" in spirit and a deafening "Yes" in reality. That's what the American Dream is.... We invented shallow. We elected trump. We glorify actors and preachers and worship money. We have the values of ignorant children amplified by tumorous wallets and teenager wisdom. We think gold plate is valuable. That diamonds really are forever. That all of our silly careers actually mean anything to this huge, impersonal, infinite universe.

    Glad I watched this. Pretty much tells me that my assessment of Florida has been spot on, all these 7 decades. I'd rather be in hell with a backache than have eternal "life" in The Villages. Best $5 rental I have spent in years, though I had to avert my eyes or shut them sometimes and just listen to the dialogue... Nope. Not me. Rather be axe murdered than die on a golf course in The Villages. I didn't need much convincing, of course. Mar A Lago tells me everything I need to know about Florida, but this.... this is a fat period on a very conclusive paragraph.