Built among the myriad lakes of central Florida, Orlando is renowned for its balmy climate and sprawling theme parks. Chief among them is Walt Disney World, that great simulacrum of spires, fountains and roller coasters. Opened in 1971, the park was Walt Disney’s passion project, especially the Epcot centre, which he visualized as a sort of Silent Running high-tech community. A decade later, the big ideas and even bigger facades of this American institution would inspire another man, Harold Schwartz, to realise his own project – The Villages.
Located just 45 miles northwest of Orlando, The Villages is the largest retirement community in the world. But this isn’t all beige décor and meals on wheels. It is a veritable theme park with 130,000 residents and more land than Manhattan Island. The theme in this case is not Mickey Mouse or Toy Story 2, but white picket Americana in the baby boomers’ image.
Located just 45 miles northwest of Orlando, The Villages is the largest retirement community in the world. But this isn’t all beige décor and meals on wheels. It is a veritable theme park with 130,000 residents and more land than Manhattan Island. The theme in this case is not Mickey Mouse or Toy Story 2, but white picket Americana in the baby boomers’ image.
- 5/4/2021
- by Jack Hawkins
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
More than 130,000 people live in The Villages, the world’s largest retirement community, a central Florida bubble that may as well be heaven on Earth. Lance Oppenheim’s documentary “Some Kind of Heaven” says that outright in its title. But heaven isn’t paradise: Sure, fountains burst forth on palatial grounds filled with golf courses, swimming pools, and music venues. Much of the aging crowd likes to party. Within the boundaries of the four characters at the center of Oppenheim’s debut, however, late-in-life utopia doesn’t come easy.
With its vibrant sun-soaked tapestry and whimsical characters committed to an idyllic fantasy, “Some Kind of Heaven” plays like a companion piece to “The Beach Bum,” or perhaps adds some fragment to its expanded universe. At the same time, there’s an element of executive producer Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler” to Oppenheim’s melancholic portrait of aging men and women keen on capturing the rascally,...
With its vibrant sun-soaked tapestry and whimsical characters committed to an idyllic fantasy, “Some Kind of Heaven” plays like a companion piece to “The Beach Bum,” or perhaps adds some fragment to its expanded universe. At the same time, there’s an element of executive producer Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler” to Oppenheim’s melancholic portrait of aging men and women keen on capturing the rascally,...
- 1/14/2021
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
The draws of living inside The Villages, the largest over-55 retirement community in the country, are readily apparent. For the nearly 115,000 veterans planted within the insulated Floridian suburban sprawl, there is no reason to be bored with life. Its complex contains golf courses and pickleball courts, swimming pools and volleyball beaches, acting and dance classes and plenty of tricked out golf carts. The sherbert sunset backdrops each night suggest this place is paradise.
That’s how some of its residents describe life in Some Kind of Heaven, Lance Oppenheim’s exploration of—and long fascination with—this central Florida bastion of elderly living. Though retirement communities generally portend life slowing down, many that plan to finish their days there are only just getting started. “You come here to live, and you never have to leave,” says one local. As seen in an opening montage, residents row and synchronize swim and...
That’s how some of its residents describe life in Some Kind of Heaven, Lance Oppenheim’s exploration of—and long fascination with—this central Florida bastion of elderly living. Though retirement communities generally portend life slowing down, many that plan to finish their days there are only just getting started. “You come here to live, and you never have to leave,” says one local. As seen in an opening montage, residents row and synchronize swim and...
- 2/1/2020
- by Jake Kring-Schreifels
- The Film Stage
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