‘Some Kind of Heaven’ Review: The Seniors Aren’t Alright - Rolling Stone

A doc on the massive Floridian retirement community known as “The Villages” skips the sociology— and goes straight to the good, the bad and the weird of it all.

You couldn’t ask for a richer documentary subject than the Villages, the massive, Florida-based retirement community that’s home to over a 120,000 senior citizens and functions as its own self-contained, self-sustaining AARPverse.

(If it sounds familiar, it’s probably because of the role it played in the 2020 Presidential campaigns.) The fact that it’s been dubbed “Disneyworld for retirees” is not coincidental — its founder, Howard S.

For a steep-ish price, folks of a certain age can sip from “a fountain of youth” with a familiar Americana vibe.

It doesn’t hide the notion that it’s pandering to a baby boomer’s idea of nostalgia.

Some Kind of Heaven, Lance Oppenheim’s tour of “Florida’s friendliest hometown,” is not particularly interested in unpacking the notion of selling this generic idea of a shiny, happy permanent vacation for the 65-and-over set.

In contrast to the smiling, beaming testimonies of so many residents — though the movie’s penchant for making all of this gladhanding some slightly suspect means you’d never mistake it for a sales pitch or infomercial — Barbara is not feeling like she’s in paradise.

Oppenheim does not want to bury or praise these folks who’ve decided to indulge in senior-citizen hedonism?

He’s more interested in the human aspect of these people who’ve entered this grand-scale Olive Garden of Eden and found it wanting, or at the very least, in making queasy art out of the communal hangover — whether it’s tableaux of country-club kitsch or oddly moving scenes of graceful grandparents going HAM on activities