Lance Oppenheim’s documentary focuses on endless sunny days of bellydancing, dating and drug use in America’s largest retirement community
“After my wife passed, I started nightclubbing.” The speaker is a resident of The Villages in
Florida, the US’s largest retirement community, home to 130,000 wealthy boomers. The town has more than 50
golf courses and offers endless leisure opportunities, from bellydancing to karate, synchronised swimming to rowing. However, if this documentary is anything to go by, the town’s number-one hobby is dating. Director Lance Oppenheim takes a gentle approach, capturing some hilarious moments, but there’s nothing patronising or mean-spirited about his film.
You could make an entire reality TV series about The Villages. Oppenheim keeps it simple with a handful of profiles. Anne and Reggie have been married for 47 years, but since retiring Reggie has been behaving erratically, taking up t’ai chi and hardcore hallucinogenics. Footage of him in court on possession charges is priceless. “When we got married, he wasn’t so unique,” says Anne diplomatically.