Having just gone through the experience of placing my parents in a home I can appreciate the grace and humanity Elliot Greenebaum displays in his film. Not many films dare to tread the subject of what happens when you are unable to care for yourself. How often are the elderly portrayed as the wacky old coots who can't manage their bathroom habits (complete with laugh track) ? I feel that this film makes us face our greatest fear - that we'll be forgotten and closeted away in an institution and worse, alone. "Todd" for all his faults recognizes this and in his own unorthodox way understands the need for someone to just listen. It will be interesting when the mass of baby boomers are shelved away in institutions. Perhaps then will storytellers broach the subject as humanely and gently as Mr. Greenebaum.
10 Reviews
When Can I Buy A Copy??
kwolf-1013 December 2004
I recently saw "Assisted Living" at a private screening in Washington, DC, and I thought it was incredible. The film captures the loneliness that many older people go through when their families forget about them, but it also portrays the fundamental beauty of human relationships. I was so happy to see this area/topic explored by a "younger person." As a 24-year old who works in this industry I'm often frustrated by the lack of interest and respect for the elderly and for the aging process. Mr. Greenebaum captured a message that sadly escapes many people today -- that quality of life is largely determined by how people treat each other, and your willingness to connect with others....regardless of how old you are.
Huh?
IMDBNerd21 February 2005
I just want to preface this with the fact that everyone has an opinion. Making a film or a piece of art in general is respectable. You're putting yourself out there for people to tear you apart or love you. So, with the utmost respect...How is this being reviewed so well? The narrative was very weak and the documentary sections seemed to ramble on and on. How many times can a montage of old people's hands and feet be interesting? I felt nothing for the lead character at all and halfway through the film wanted to go to sleep. While combining documentary and fiction film is an interesting concept, it totally doesn't work here. It seems like something patched together.
A detailed and sensitive portrait of aging
erxnmedia10 August 2003
I saw this movie at a Gen Art screening in New York and loved it. It is basically a first-time work for this director who shows impressive maturity and sensitivity for someone in his late 20's (and impressive organizational ability to pull it off).
The best way to describe it is as a portrait of aging. It is not really judgemental, it is affectionate. Some reviewers thought he was criticizing the nursing home it was set in; I don't. It's not really One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The film's main protagonist (a slacker who smokes weed on the way to work but bonds well with the old people), probably would get fired in real life, and probably nobody but him would get too upset about it. (I have a friend in real life who is a carbon copy of the main character, and in mid-life has settled into a low-paying job as a janitor in a small art museum, where people understand his limitations but accept him for who he is.) So all in all I found the film to be extremely realistic.
What got to me were the frequent closeups of hands, as an old woman attempted to sew or knit or play cards and was having difficulty doing many of the things we take for granted. Really the film is about those quiet little difficulties and what life is like when you're pretty old and almost done. This is very sad and the film brought out the sadness in me. But it is part of life and I think watching this film puts it on the table and makes it easier to accept that people you love do grow old and lose their capacities and eventually die. That's just the way it is!
I complemented the director at the Q&A afterwards. I wanted to buy a copy to show friends and family but they're still trying to get regular distribution. My guess is you might see it on A&E some day but it probably won't get much play other than that and won't make it to video, so I hope they will get around to self-distributing it at some point. (And now that this is out of his system, I'll be curious to see what the second act is for the writer/director, or whether this will be a one-hit wonder for him.)
The best way to describe it is as a portrait of aging. It is not really judgemental, it is affectionate. Some reviewers thought he was criticizing the nursing home it was set in; I don't. It's not really One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The film's main protagonist (a slacker who smokes weed on the way to work but bonds well with the old people), probably would get fired in real life, and probably nobody but him would get too upset about it. (I have a friend in real life who is a carbon copy of the main character, and in mid-life has settled into a low-paying job as a janitor in a small art museum, where people understand his limitations but accept him for who he is.) So all in all I found the film to be extremely realistic.
What got to me were the frequent closeups of hands, as an old woman attempted to sew or knit or play cards and was having difficulty doing many of the things we take for granted. Really the film is about those quiet little difficulties and what life is like when you're pretty old and almost done. This is very sad and the film brought out the sadness in me. But it is part of life and I think watching this film puts it on the table and makes it easier to accept that people you love do grow old and lose their capacities and eventually die. That's just the way it is!
I complemented the director at the Q&A afterwards. I wanted to buy a copy to show friends and family but they're still trying to get regular distribution. My guess is you might see it on A&E some day but it probably won't get much play other than that and won't make it to video, so I hope they will get around to self-distributing it at some point. (And now that this is out of his system, I'll be curious to see what the second act is for the writer/director, or whether this will be a one-hit wonder for him.)
Doesn't quite make it
pinotage12 February 2005
Saw this at the pre-release screening in NYC. Why do people think that only stoners, misfits and screw-ups show "humanity?" Todd the janitor was not really kind to the old people; the care-takers who follow the rules and show up every day deserve the real credit in "assisted living." The director answered questions after the screening and his heart is in the right place but he is perhaps overly influenced by "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and others in the genre. He did get some good performances from his real-life residents and captured the way these facilities are run. Particularly good was the administrator who needs a bottle of bourbon--the film was shot in Kentucky--to get through the day.
A Moving Portrait of Not Going Gentle Into That Good Night
noralee15 February 2005
"Assisted Living" is a subtle and moving portrait of individuals trying to reach out to each other within the rigid, bureaucratic realities of a nursing home.
Brilliantly filmed within an actual facility, using long walks down endless corridors much as Gus Van Sant did in "Elephant," the realism is palpable, framed by "The Office"-style mockumentary interviews with the staff and other interactions that have the honest feel of situational spontaneity.
But debut writer/director Elliot Greenebaum lets us gradually understand each quirky character, literally warts and all. He raises some of the same issues of bland, controlling institutionalization of the disabled that "Rory O'Shea Was Here (Inside I'm Dancing)," but that focused on the young with options, or like a less exaggerated "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," and this focuses on how the elderly have fewer options, particularly as Alzheimer's and physical ailments can slowly overtake them. He lets us quietly-yet with intense trepidation-- understand what assignment to different parts of the facility mean to the residents and the staff as he demonstrates how an institution becomes a complete social order.
Until I checked the IMDb I wasn't sure if the cast even had SAG cards or were excellent local amateurs. While Michael Bonsignore is very good as the stoner orderly whose simple human kindness in opening a door or picking up a telephone has unintended consequences, Maggie Riley as "Mrs. Pearlman" is breathtaking as the resident who connects with him, outshining Gena Rowlands "The Notebook," let alone Gloria Stuart in "Titanic," for creating a complex portrait of woman who is still holding on to some reality before she goes out not gentle into that good night.
The cinematography was fairly grainy, though that added to the documentary feel of a video diary. The music was excellent in helping to build up the tension around little things that are very emotional.
While you will cry, you are left less depressed than sympathetic for the indomitability of the human spirit in the face of the inevitable. I remember a seminar I went to about the disabled where the facilitator said that we are all only temporarily abled. This should be required viewing for anyone who has (or will have) institutionalized relatives.
Brilliantly filmed within an actual facility, using long walks down endless corridors much as Gus Van Sant did in "Elephant," the realism is palpable, framed by "The Office"-style mockumentary interviews with the staff and other interactions that have the honest feel of situational spontaneity.
But debut writer/director Elliot Greenebaum lets us gradually understand each quirky character, literally warts and all. He raises some of the same issues of bland, controlling institutionalization of the disabled that "Rory O'Shea Was Here (Inside I'm Dancing)," but that focused on the young with options, or like a less exaggerated "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," and this focuses on how the elderly have fewer options, particularly as Alzheimer's and physical ailments can slowly overtake them. He lets us quietly-yet with intense trepidation-- understand what assignment to different parts of the facility mean to the residents and the staff as he demonstrates how an institution becomes a complete social order.
Until I checked the IMDb I wasn't sure if the cast even had SAG cards or were excellent local amateurs. While Michael Bonsignore is very good as the stoner orderly whose simple human kindness in opening a door or picking up a telephone has unintended consequences, Maggie Riley as "Mrs. Pearlman" is breathtaking as the resident who connects with him, outshining Gena Rowlands "The Notebook," let alone Gloria Stuart in "Titanic," for creating a complex portrait of woman who is still holding on to some reality before she goes out not gentle into that good night.
The cinematography was fairly grainy, though that added to the documentary feel of a video diary. The music was excellent in helping to build up the tension around little things that are very emotional.
While you will cry, you are left less depressed than sympathetic for the indomitability of the human spirit in the face of the inevitable. I remember a seminar I went to about the disabled where the facilitator said that we are all only temporarily abled. This should be required viewing for anyone who has (or will have) institutionalized relatives.
Just makes me not want to grow old...
Polaris_DiB21 November 2008
Warning: Spoilers
I gotta say, this movie and I? Not operating on the same wavelength. I can't really call it a good movie, or a bad movie, or talk much about what works or doesn't because I had a really hard time really getting into the flow of it.
Basically, this movie is a sort of neo-cinema verite movie about a janitor who works in an assisted living center. He is by all designs a screw up, but he means a lot to the patients, especially one who has a son that abandoned her to go to Australia. The key moment that really matters for their relationship is when the priest sits down and discusses faith. The rest of it is like half of a documentary and half of a fiction movie, though in this case two halves don't make a whole; they make two halves.
Now, it's very clear that the filmmaker cared a lot about presenting the home without bias and from a realist perspective. It's also clear that he legitimately cares about the people involved on every level; nobody is really vilified and even any potential antagonists are given their dignity and humanity.
However, all this movie did for me is remind me why most people don't want to grow old. Todd, frankly, is not an interesting enough character to carry the story, and the other lead has some very uncomfortable moments that basically make euthanasia seem like good advice. What I'm not clear on is if there is a real message about the situation of assisted living. I'm not even very clear why the filmmaker chose to make this story, and why in this style. All I can say is that it's a unique concept and he at least kept away from being invasive.
--PolarisDiB
Basically, this movie is a sort of neo-cinema verite movie about a janitor who works in an assisted living center. He is by all designs a screw up, but he means a lot to the patients, especially one who has a son that abandoned her to go to Australia. The key moment that really matters for their relationship is when the priest sits down and discusses faith. The rest of it is like half of a documentary and half of a fiction movie, though in this case two halves don't make a whole; they make two halves.
Now, it's very clear that the filmmaker cared a lot about presenting the home without bias and from a realist perspective. It's also clear that he legitimately cares about the people involved on every level; nobody is really vilified and even any potential antagonists are given their dignity and humanity.
However, all this movie did for me is remind me why most people don't want to grow old. Todd, frankly, is not an interesting enough character to carry the story, and the other lead has some very uncomfortable moments that basically make euthanasia seem like good advice. What I'm not clear on is if there is a real message about the situation of assisted living. I'm not even very clear why the filmmaker chose to make this story, and why in this style. All I can say is that it's a unique concept and he at least kept away from being invasive.
--PolarisDiB
We may all be here someday...have empathy....
MarieGabrielle1 November 2006
I empathize with a few reviewers who have described what it is like to put a parent in a nursing home. My brother is a doctor, and we recently had to put our father, a war veteran, into assisted living; this is such a pertinent theme today; American families trying to help aging parents. (With no help from insurance companies).
This indie film is well-presented, in that Todd, well portrayed, is a caring person, disillusioned with his life and job.
He empathizes with an Alzheimer's patient, Mrs. Perlman. She misses her son, and for some reason identifies with Todd. We see the cold impersonal staff at the home, as Mrs. Perlman tries to make a phone call, and the nurse on duty patronizes her, telling her to go to her room and lie down.
Kudos to the director, addressing a taboo subject. This film is one of the few worth buying, I was very moved by the performances (some of which are real patients at an assisted living facility in Kentucky). 9/10.
This indie film is well-presented, in that Todd, well portrayed, is a caring person, disillusioned with his life and job.
He empathizes with an Alzheimer's patient, Mrs. Perlman. She misses her son, and for some reason identifies with Todd. We see the cold impersonal staff at the home, as Mrs. Perlman tries to make a phone call, and the nurse on duty patronizes her, telling her to go to her room and lie down.
Kudos to the director, addressing a taboo subject. This film is one of the few worth buying, I was very moved by the performances (some of which are real patients at an assisted living facility in Kentucky). 9/10.
Why You Never What to Finish Out Your Days in a Nursing Home!
mrpentax9 October 2005
This movie could be so close to the true that it's scare. The characters are amazingly realistic. The people in nursing homes are so forgotten that their environment become a separate existence, a world apart from reality. Some people may feel that some of the treatment of the patients are cruel, but you have to weigh that against the loneliness of having no one notice you for days. Give this film a try. Then talk to your kids about how your never want to be in a nursing home, under any circumstances. Because of the use of pot, this film is not appropriate for younger people. Remember that the care takers get minimum wage and would be better of working at McDonalds or Burger King.
How is this possible??
timtimes15 August 2006
When you realize that this film was made by someone twenty years old on an extremely tight budget, it kinda makes you sick in the pit of your stomach. You have to wonder how much overfunded garbage gets churned out while talented young film makers toil with little or nothing, producing quality output that shames many of the headliners. If you didn't watch the commentary that came with the film you missed out on an interview with the filmmaker that was refreshing and enlightening. Possessing technical talent, organizational skills AND the ability to tell such a complex and sensitive story is rare. To see such traits so fully developed in a man of such youth is truly extraordinary. Looking forward to seeing the work of this young man as his career matures.
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