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
  • gethys-60258 - 23 April 2024
    Painfully skewed agenda
    I watched this to learn about "the Villages" and figured it would certainly hit on the dirty side of things but this doesn't cover any of that. It follows the lives of four people, one of whom doesn't even live there but is living in his van in hopes of finding a sugar mama. One couple is a guy who is painted as crazy but is likely in the beginning stages of depression and his overwhelmed and sad wife and the fourth is a recent widow who is lonely. It is clear that the director looked for pathetic people to make it seems like a miserable and pathetic place. There is no real discussion of what it is or what real events/activities they offer. The transitional clips of events are always of small groups of people in homes or small areas to create a "pathetic" look. Pulling up images of the villages; it looks like they actually have some great and impressive entertainment and activities but you wouldn't know it watching this thing. The lighting/or lack thereof casts everything in shadows and fluorescent light to make it less appealing (for a professional production, wouldn't you think they would do stage lighting for interviews and such??). To further the sense of it being "dystopia" they do close or of facades that don't look nice or show scenes with broken stuff (like the one of the street lamp with one light hanging over) vs showing the full street and overall feel of the place. I've never been to the actual place but this "documentary" (if you want to call it that) is a depressing dystopia that seems to intentionally want to create a negative perception of a place that probably is actually a nice place (I have to assume older people flock there for a reason). Avoid it or watch it with skepticism.
  • anirog - 3 December 2021
    Utterly depressing and uninspired
    Nothing much happens in this documentary, it's as if the people making it lost interest (as I did) in the first ten minutes and it just sort of ambles along with shots of mundane people doing mundane things. I didn't much care for any of the people in the film, being mostly self obsessed and one dimensional at least this was how they were portrayed.
  • silverpinkcity - 20 May 2021
    Weirdly Interesting.
    I found this documentary very NOT boring! I'm not sure why...maybe it was the realism of it. Real people...real feelings...real problems...everyone with their own unique personality, not just the "personality of an Old Person."

    Seeing older people as just everyday people....and not necessarily "The Elderly" was somewhat eye-opening. All of the movies these days about this age group (usually written by younger people, I'm sure) make them see like they're so "different." This show proves they are not. They have hopes, dreams, problems, crushes, marriage difficulties...just like everyone else! And that's somehow refreshing...

    The Villages as a whole, however, seem sort of odd. Somewhat....surreal. Not part of "real life," as one of the people even admitted. "It's like you're living in a bubble." I can compare it to how I felt after vacationing in Disney...that whole "bubble" feeling. Actually, it's not a bad feeling! Sort of reminds me of life on the ship in the movie "Wall-E" without all the technology. But just give it time.

    The constant parties and dancing and group activity...I wonder, does everyone participate in all that, all the time? Maybe it would have been good if the show pointed out that some residents are not total "party animals" and just enjoy "doing their own thing." Honestly, watching this show, I was feeling that these older people are leading way more exciting lives than I am, I can tell you that much!

    The "ready socialization" the community provides is nice...if you want it. Not that you would want it constantly. Although, maybe some people do. Anyway, I found the whole thing interesting. Why not make a documentary about older people? This society has the mistaken idea that only young people are interesting. Nothing could be further from the truth.

    I would recommend this show ...especially to anyone who might be interested in moving to this place...although a few of the people the show focused on did seem a bit odd (and yea, one was a real loser).