Hey everyone! Another day at the Sundance Festival has come and gone and unfortunately it’s another day of disappointing results. I don’t know if the difference is not having the locals pass so having less flexibility in choice but this year’s festival seems so much worse than last year. There has really only been one movie that I’ve loved (Save Yourselves) as much as I loved Maiden, Blinded by the Light, The Farewell, Apollo 11 or The Mustang last year. This is particularly disappointing because I convinced 2 friends to join in the festival, and they haven’t had great experiences. Darn it all!

Anyway I saw 2 movies today, both documentaries. I was planning on seeing a narrative film called Shirley but I chickened out and decided to pass and give the tickets to someone when I heard how violent and sexually graphic the film was. I just wasn’t up for it today. 1 of the documentaries I liked well enough and the other was (again) a disappointment. So here goes:

Some Kind of Heaven

In this film director Lance Oppenheim profiles a massive retirement community in Central Florida and tries to answer the question: Can you have too much to do once you’re retired?

Oppenheim makes the odd choice of focusing on 4 outsiders within the giant community and while that is interesting it does give a cynical feeling to the overall film. It might have been nice to have one voice who is uplifted and encouraged by all the group experiences.

Nevertheless, I did find myself thinking about the themes presented in the film all night long. Each of the residents gives up their autonomy to be part of this collective experience. They are told several times in the movie that there is ‘no excuse to be bored  in The Villages’. This town has a never ending supply of activities, clubs, recreational sports and more.

They are all the type of activities that many of us wish we could do all day. How many times have each of us thought ‘if I could just _______ all day I would be happy’ but the truth is all of this supposedly ‘fun’ stuff doesn’t provide lasting joy. Joy comes from fulfilling relationships and life that contributes to others. This is true if you are 10 or 110! In a weird way the Villages becomes a type of ‘keep you busy’ prison and like I said that’s a cynical message but not one without a dose of truth to it.

7 out of 10

Smile Worthy

Spaceship Earth

I love a good crazy documentary. I’m a fan of directors like Errol Morris who makes kooky films like Gates of Heaven: a documentary all about a pet cemetery and the man who obsesses over it. This was my hope for the documentary Spaceship Earth about a group of people who entered a biosphere for 2 years as an experiment and media event in the 90s. The story is intriguing and weird but unfortunately was told with all the energy of a dry boring lecture in college. Darn!

The problem with some documentaries is the creators becomes too concerned with details when they should be focused on telling a good story. Of course, we don’t want the storytelling to overtake facts and become propaganda but we also need to be engaged as viewers. If your movie feels like a textbook of the events it is not going to work even if those events are interesting.

Spaceship Earth even has a last act surprise appearance by former Trump stooge Steve Bannon and that’s not even engrossing. I frankly struggled to stay awake and played the head banging game most of the movie. I was so frustrated because it had so much potential.

3 out of 10

Frown Worthy