Note: the author of this review watched Some kind of sky on a digital screen From home. Before making the decision to see it – or any other film – at the cinema, consider the health risks involved. Here it is an interview on the subject with scientific experts.
Watching Some kind of sky, a fascinating new documentary about life in a huge Florida retirement community, the mind can stray to an entire library of films about the plastic unreality of suburban life. In part, this is because the film the director, 24-year-old Lance Oppenheim, clearly follows some tips, both visual and tonal, of the genre’s touchstones. But also because its theme, the so-called “Disney World for retirees”, was essentially built from the same psychic project as these films: the nostalgic image of an immaculate American’s dream yesterday, a boomer paradise more imagined than remembered. What Oppenheim found in his first feature film is a real place as art-driven as Blue Velvet or Edward Scissor Hands or American Beauty. It’s like a Manhattan-sized movie set – a Hollywood facsimile of mid-century high life that you can really get into.
The Villages, as this geriatric paradise is called, is spread across three counties, about 72 kilometers from Orlando. It is home to some 130,000 residents, most of them elderly, to whom it offers an apparently endless range of amusements, leisure activities and amenities – a playground for the AARP set, like a luxury cruise spread across acres and acres of dry land . “Everything you could possibly want is here,” says a true believer. Another compares this to being on vacation every day. But the community’s appeal goes deeper than its promise of uninterrupted fun, sun and relaxation. It was also designed, from top to bottom, to conform to the pink-tinted idea of a “perfect” American city, the kind that its demographics have mitigated in their heads. (The fact that the population is mainly, though not exclusively, white probably contributes to this fantasy of some of the villagers; it was no coincidence that Trump campaigned there last fall, garnering the support of a largely conservative electoral bloc.)
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Some kind of sky it’s not a cute story of human interest and it certainly doesn’t work as an advertisement for the community. Even when Oppenheim focuses on his happiest eccentricities, there is a current of unease: a scene with a women’s club all called Elaine is filmed to emphasize the smiling uniformity of worship – a hallmark of the influence exerted by producer Darren Aronofsky, perhaps. Like many films about the real American suburbs, this one is concerned with the discontent that lurks under the bright and shiny veneer of prosperity and fulfillment. And Oppenheim found this out on a number of subjects whose experiences at The Villages were less than idyllic.
There is Anne and Reggie Kincer, who skidded through a difficult phase after 47 years of marriage – partly because Reggie, discouraged by the general healthiness of the whole place, started experimenting with psychotropic drugs. Widow Barbara Lochiatto also moved to The Village with her husband, but now lives there alone, four months after her death; lonely and distressed, she struggles to make friends or find a place in the community’s various social circles, longing for a move back to her hometown, Boston, which she cannot afford. (The fact that Barbara had to work a full-time job at her age to pay the rent for the brand both as a stranger among the wealthiest villagers and as a substitute for everyone else struggling with the financial burden of living in a real park theme for the elderly.) Finally, Some kind of sky saves some time for an intruder’s schemes: Dennis Dean, an 81-year-old bachelor who lives in his van and parks just outside The Villages, with the avowed goal of seducing and living with a wealthy resident.
Oppenheim provides his parallel subplots with a clean narrative rhythm. We see real changes in these lives over the course of 83 minutes, each subject experiencing something similar to a scripted arc. Of course, they were actually with script, the result can be more uncomplicatedly happy. Some kind of sky instead, it tends to be bittersweet and inconclusive: just because Barbara makes a call with a single partner, does not mean that romance is a sure thing. And while there is a comic potential in Dennis’s infamous plot to get a wealthy lover, the reality of his decidedly non-fictional situation is actually quite hopeless, as the man’s options narrow and he considers the possibility of retiring to the stability of an old relationship. Oppenheim captures some deeply sad and human moments, such as the scene where Anne’s face melts into disappointment when Reggie announces his plans to get high and “jack off” (in his straightforward and unromantic language) on their wedding anniversary.
Some kind of sky it contrasts the dissatisfaction of its participants with the sun from their surroundings, to better emphasize the great gap that separates how they feel and how they are expected to feel in a community to which an announcer refers, not ironically, as “nirvana”. Sometimes the film is as composed – as well maintained – as The Villages themselves: Oppenheim and his talented cameraman, David Bolen, carefully organize their subjects on the board, with an eye on symmetry and kitsch. But this approach, partly due to the formal rigor of Errol Morris, helps to underline one of the countless ideas in the film – namely, that for many residents, carefree retirement is a kind of performance, a representation of the very concept of the latter. years finally having fun. Either way, this is certainly one of the most wonderful and impressive documentaries in recent memory, capturing a vibrant Florida color palette – the bright oranges and blues of the sky, the showy pastels of local haute couture – in a 35mm mix. and digitally textured.
If nothing else, The Villages is a new setting for a film, both visually and environmentally. One can imagine a totally different documentary about the place, one that investigates its subcultures, oddities and personalities with a little more zeal, not to mention its politics. Oppenheim this mirage kingdom treats the easy life for the years of age widely as a gateway to the desires and disappointments of those who struggle to accept its promise. In the process, he made a film about the lie of life becoming simpler and more satisfying as you get older. Happiness can remain elusive, even with a pool in the backyard and Jimmy Buffet forever in the jukebox.