I'm currently on track to see well over 100 of this year's films by the time I publish my "Not the Best Films of 2021" here in mid-January. It's been a terrific year for movies, too - so much so that I'll have a very tough time limiting that upcoming list to just 12 films. So this year, I've decided to honor my three favorite documentaries of 2021 in their own separate post. Here they are, in no particular order.:
Some Kind of Heaven (director Lance Oppenheim)
The Villages - Florida's sprawling, sun-drenched, candy-colored retirement community - look like a retiree's paradise at first glance. Lots of trim, tanned seniors tool around in golf carts between water aerobics classes, dance parties and evening cocktails, and everyone looks healthy and happy. But director Lance Oppenheim looks a little closer and finds the hell-on-earth experience beneath the shiny surface for a handful of its residents. A recently widowed woman, who can't quite get on board with the forced cheerfulness and relentless organized group activity, can't afford to move back to be with her family in New Jersey. Another struggles with her husband's addiction and mental health issues with little support or understanding from the the community around her. A would-be lothario lives out of his van and sneaks onto the property daily to hang by the pool and search for a wealthy widow to take him in.
Oppenheim's direction is extraordinarily subtle. He captures, with no apparent irony, the aspects of life in The Villages that are genuinely appealing, yet also accords tremendous sympathy and dignity to those who aren't well served by the community's perpetually sunny and upbeat vibe. He doesn't push an agenda so much as gently, but persistently, excavate the details of his subjects' lives. The result is both fascinating and heartbreaking.
I've already reviewed this in a previous post (you can read it here.) Since seeing it, I've spent a fair amount of time reading both Vonnegut's own work and other people's assessments of him; as a result, I'm forced to admit that Weide's documentary is a tad more hagiographic than I initially realized. Some of the most difficult and contradictory aspects of Vonnegut's personality aren't acknowledged at all. (One example: Vonnegut, a survivor of the Dresden firebombing and passionate opponent of the Vietnam War, owned a sizable amount of stock in Dow Chemical, the manufacturer of napalm. Wouldn't you like to know why? I would.)
Some Kind of Heaven is available to stream on Hulu with a subscription, or to rent from Apple TV.
Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For it (director Mariem Perez Riera)
It's hard for me to write about this film without sounding like Rita Moreno's press agent. I can't help it. I adore her, and I can't quite separate my fandom from this testament to Moreno's talent, passion and survival instincts. And why should I? With seven decades of show business experience behind her - and a willingness to expose the skeletons in her closet (and everyone else's too) - Moreno's recounting of her own life story is a surefire hit. She's so brutally honest, passionate, opinionated, angry, funny and full of life that there's little for a director to do but point a camera at her and let 'er rip. (And, of course, insert a generous supply of film clips from her career along the way.)
As a young child, Moreno and her mother left Puerto Rico (and her father) for New York. She got her first film contract while still a teenager and spent years struggling with Hollywood's sexual predators and racist typecasting before breaking through to an Oscar-winning performance as Anita in West Side Story. Even then, her career proceeded only in fits and starts, in tandem with a tempestuous, years-long on-off relationship with Marlon Brando. She followed it with therapy and a stable marriage to a man who was never entirely comfortable with her outsized show-business personality. Meanwhile, she worked steadily on television and the stage. Now 90, Moreno has both the feisty energy of a much younger woman and the filter-permanently-removed frankness of a seen-it-all nonagenarian, committed to both activism and art. The happy result is a documentary that's equal parts entertainment, education, and inspiration.
Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It is available to stream on Netflix.
Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time (Director Robert Weide)
I've already reviewed this in a previous post (you can read it here.) Since seeing it, I've spent a fair amount of time reading both Vonnegut's own work and other people's assessments of him; as a result, I'm forced to admit that Weide's documentary is a tad more hagiographic than I initially realized. Some of the most difficult and contradictory aspects of Vonnegut's personality aren't acknowledged at all. (One example: Vonnegut, a survivor of the Dresden firebombing and passionate opponent of the Vietnam War, owned a sizable amount of stock in Dow Chemical, the manufacturer of napalm. Wouldn't you like to know why? I would.)
Even so, I remain extremely fond of this film, if only because it allows me to spend time with one of my most cherished authors. It has saddened me to realize, as I've read up on Vonnegut in the last few weeks, that many reviewers still dismiss him based on his special appeal to sensitive young people. Their position appears to be that his writing itself is adolescent, that it won't hold up for older, wiser readers. Frankly, this is bullshit.
Just yesterday, I finished re-reading Mother Night, Vonnegut's mournful 1961 novel about the aftermath of World War II and the thin, malleable boundaries between collective guilt and personal culpability for its horrors. It's infused with the kind of world-weary heartache that only an experienced adult can understand; I was much more moved by it this time - emotionally shattered, in fact - than I was or even could have been at 16. And, for the record, I turn 62 next month, which makes me 23 years older than Vonnegut was when he wrote it.
Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time is available to rent from Amazon or Apple TV.
