This is a great example of how there are many points of view in any story. My husband and I arrived at The Villages almost "by accident" and we are so glad to be here. The quality of life and the opportunities to help other people and the numerous jobs it offers to the communities around it are fantastic! Come and visit before you make your conclusions about the documentary!
4 Reviews
A Brit in the 'Bubble'
britbloketx29 October 2022
I am recommending this documentary for a couple of reasons.... First, it's where I live, it's where I hope to spend the rest of my life, it's where I met my new and wonderful family of close friends.... It's where I'm at my HAPPIEST. This film will show why I choose to live here. Secondly and later in the film, it examines the philosophy of aging and how important it is to be an active adult, without any barriers or constraints that typically face senior living.
Only negative is that most of the filming was in 2017 and there have been huge changes from then until now and the average age of residents has dropped by 15 years....
Only negative is that most of the filming was in 2017 and there have been huge changes from then until now and the average age of residents has dropped by 15 years....
Maintaining an illusion
morrinson6 May 2024
From a certain angle, Valerie Blankenbyl and her team show in The Bubble an admittedly artificial city, built a few dozen kilometers from Orlando in Florida on land obtained through real-estate predation, populated by over 150,000 retirees who look particularly happy. They probably are, and that's the first thing that strikes you about The Villages: amidst 50 golf courses and 70 swimming pools, evolving in isolation amidst a remarkably homogeneous social fabric, you'd think you were in an aging variant of The Truman Show, where every resident is a 75-year-old Truman Burbank in the making, sincerely happy and living in the best of all possible worlds according to his or her own criteria.
On the other hand, there's a downside to this medal. Without ever questioning the happiness of the people interviewed, and with Blankenbyl's respect always evident, The Bubble presents a particularly creepy, almost science-fiction nightmare, a sort of cross between Black Mirror and The Village of the Damned, which would have produced a region of extreme homogeneity in terms of social characteristics over some 50 square kilometers. It's a land of old Republicans who drive around in golf carts to buy big guns or luxurious jewelry whenever they feel like it, a territory of die-hard Trumpists who bathe in a sonic atmosphere fueled by a Fox News radio cousin broadcasting 24 hours a day in various public squares, while continually seeking to stave off death with scalpels. But then again, the camera never becomes over-significant, never hostile: it all emerges in a diffuse, soothing way, as if on the bangs of a scenario à la Carpenter's Invasion Los Angeles (They Live).
That's the beauty and relevance of a documentary of this kind, capable on the one hand of spontaneously and easily showing the excesses of this frozen, inward-looking world, in which grandparents are happy to be away from their children so they don't have to worry about looking after the grandchildren every four mornings, and, on the other, a nuanced portrayal of the residents outside, who are organizing themselves to try and combat the expansion of the sprawling city, spreading out like the tentacles of an extraterrestrial mass. Blankenbyl reconciles the different points of view with great care, and the people who were willing to testify (against the advice of the management, who urged them not to do so) are treated with the utmost respect, which doesn't prevent a powerfully surreal atmosphere from emerging. The elderly feel protected from the rest of the world, content to see no glimmer of youth to remind them of their condition, delighted to have worked hard enough to afford the luxury of this mega-residence with no cemetery and ambulances entering with the siren off. All it takes to conceal the blight and maintain an illusion. Sinister and fascinating.
On the other hand, there's a downside to this medal. Without ever questioning the happiness of the people interviewed, and with Blankenbyl's respect always evident, The Bubble presents a particularly creepy, almost science-fiction nightmare, a sort of cross between Black Mirror and The Village of the Damned, which would have produced a region of extreme homogeneity in terms of social characteristics over some 50 square kilometers. It's a land of old Republicans who drive around in golf carts to buy big guns or luxurious jewelry whenever they feel like it, a territory of die-hard Trumpists who bathe in a sonic atmosphere fueled by a Fox News radio cousin broadcasting 24 hours a day in various public squares, while continually seeking to stave off death with scalpels. But then again, the camera never becomes over-significant, never hostile: it all emerges in a diffuse, soothing way, as if on the bangs of a scenario à la Carpenter's Invasion Los Angeles (They Live).
That's the beauty and relevance of a documentary of this kind, capable on the one hand of spontaneously and easily showing the excesses of this frozen, inward-looking world, in which grandparents are happy to be away from their children so they don't have to worry about looking after the grandchildren every four mornings, and, on the other, a nuanced portrayal of the residents outside, who are organizing themselves to try and combat the expansion of the sprawling city, spreading out like the tentacles of an extraterrestrial mass. Blankenbyl reconciles the different points of view with great care, and the people who were willing to testify (against the advice of the management, who urged them not to do so) are treated with the utmost respect, which doesn't prevent a powerfully surreal atmosphere from emerging. The elderly feel protected from the rest of the world, content to see no glimmer of youth to remind them of their condition, delighted to have worked hard enough to afford the luxury of this mega-residence with no cemetery and ambulances entering with the siren off. All it takes to conceal the blight and maintain an illusion. Sinister and fascinating.
Diagonale - Graz AT
jcpolm12 June 2021
I was lucky enough to see this film at the 2021 Diagonale Film Fest in Graz AT.
Excellent doc exploring the peculiar Central Florida development, The Villages, with interviews from both sides of 'The Bubble'.
The political, cultural, economic, and environmental impacts of the development provides ample material to delve into, making this a rather engrossing film.
Excellent production, and beautifully made. Highly recommend giving this a watch, both for Americans and non. 9/10.
Excellent doc exploring the peculiar Central Florida development, The Villages, with interviews from both sides of 'The Bubble'.
The political, cultural, economic, and environmental impacts of the development provides ample material to delve into, making this a rather engrossing film.
Excellent production, and beautifully made. Highly recommend giving this a watch, both for Americans and non. 9/10.
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