Some Kind of Heaven
— “Some Kind of Heaven” was shown at the 2020 True/False Film Fest and, for T/F festival films, I’m giving a general reaction to the viewing experience, followed by the film’s description as it appeared on the festival website.
As someone of an age where retirement communities are a choice some people I know are making, The Villages represents that largest and, for some, scariest of the lot. You get a sense of just how large the community is and how many options are available, and the bubble in which its residents live, but the focus isn’t really on The Villages, it’s on the way we define ourselves in older age, the circumstances in which we find ourselves and how we deal with them, the need for emotional connections, perhaps even over physical comfort. One of the highlighted characters ended up realizing he had to choose between comfort and freedom. I smiled, thinking that there’s some irony it should come down to that choice for a generation originally defined by social and political unrest. (It is worth mentioning that Darren Aronofsky is credited as a producer.)
Description from the T/F website: “A Floridian garden of earthly delights and its discontents, Some Kind of Heaven follows retirees newly arrived at the fountain of youth. At The Villages, a married couple, a widow, and a bachelor find Eden and a second bite at the apple. An area handyman looks for work while a woman toys with love after loss and joining the parrotheads, and each of the deadly sins is out on full display. From synchronized swimming to pickleball, the good life is waiting, as well as a discounted funeral package now at a new, lower price. In a transcendent debut film that puts a twist on the “long-term” relationship, Oppenheim digs below the perfect facade to explore each person’s oscillation between integrity and despair, reinvention and recklessness, freedom and familiar safety. A film that reminds us that we all leave this Earth the way we came.”
As someone of an age where retirement communities are a choice some people I know are making, The Villages represents that largest and, for some, scariest of the lot. You get a sense of just how large the community is and how many options are available, and the bubble in which its residents live, but the focus isn’t really on The Villages, it’s on the way we define ourselves in older age, the circumstances in which we find ourselves and how we deal with them, the need for emotional connections, perhaps even over physical comfort. One of the highlighted characters ended up realizing he had to choose between comfort and freedom. I smiled, thinking that there’s some irony it should come down to that choice for a generation originally defined by social and political unrest. (It is worth mentioning that Darren Aronofsky is credited as a producer.)
Description from the T/F website: “A Floridian garden of earthly delights and its discontents, Some Kind of Heaven follows retirees newly arrived at the fountain of youth. At The Villages, a married couple, a widow, and a bachelor find Eden and a second bite at the apple. An area handyman looks for work while a woman toys with love after loss and joining the parrotheads, and each of the deadly sins is out on full display. From synchronized swimming to pickleball, the good life is waiting, as well as a discounted funeral package now at a new, lower price. In a transcendent debut film that puts a twist on the “long-term” relationship, Oppenheim digs below the perfect facade to explore each person’s oscillation between integrity and despair, reinvention and recklessness, freedom and familiar safety. A film that reminds us that we all leave this Earth the way we came.”
[2020. 81 min. Directed by Lance Oppenheim.]
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/some-kind-heaven-review-1274913
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