Queen Mimi: Film Review

Released 13 May 2015.

Queen Mimi (2015) is a 75 minute documentary introduces the viewers to an octogenarian woman living in a Santa Monica laundromat.

Over the course of the documentary, Mimi shares her survival strategies, attitudes, and relationships.

The entire documentary is riveting.  Mimi defies stereotypes about the homeless and reveals herself to be very complex.

For example, she cannot abide homeless people loitering in "her" laundromat. She's also incredibly cheerful, given her limited resources.  She's also a bit of a flirt, charming those around her and not alienating them.

As a gerontologist, I was particularly interested in seeing how Mimi showed incredible emotional and physical resilience in late life. She serves as an example to me on how to be flexible and resourceful in meeting life's challenges.

I would outline the whole of her biography, but much of the documentary's tension comes from the aim to answer these questions: Has she always been homeless? Does she have a family Do they know where she is?

Well, in fewer than two hours of viewing, you can learn the answer to these questions while also complicating your view of the homeless.

Related:

Films about Aging
The Stranger in My Recliner: Book Review 

The Lady in the Van: Film Review

Release date: December 4, 2015.

Maggie Smith--yet again--gives a stellar performance.

This time, Smith plays Mary Shepherd, the titular character in the 2015 film The Lady in the Van.

This film is based on real events experienced by author, playwright, screenwriter Alan Bennett. Readers are probably most familiar with his work as a screenwriter on The Madness of King George (1994), based on his play.

Bennett first knew Shepherd in the late 1960s as a vagrant who would park her broken down van on the streets of his neighborhood in Camden (outside of London).

Bennett's character is played by Alex Jennings, and the film is shot on the same street and the same house where the events took place.

In order to prevent her van from being towed, he let her park in his driveway.

She stayed for 15 years.

Over those many years, Bennett and Shepherd have an uneasy relationships. She is moody and irrational. She's not clean. She exhibits signs of paranoia. She's bossy and argumentative.  Nevertheless, Bennett ends up helping her in significant ways. However, he protests that he does so not out of kindness but because he's timid.

The Stranger in My Recliner: Book Review

Published 26 January 2016.

Fate brought Sophie into John McGettigan's path one day--quite literally.

When Sophie fell on the sidewalk in front of him, John recognized this small, octogenarian woman from their casual friendship as residents of the same town.  

At that time, Sophie had been living outside after losing permission to sleep in a basement of a meeting hall.  

Once John learned she was homeless, he drove Sophie home where his wife Doreen agreed that they should make a bed on the couch for Sophie. 

A night's refuge turned into a week, then a month. 

Somehow, Sophie ended up living with the McGettigans for over a year.  As a writer, Doreen worked through her thoughts and feelings about caring for Sophie by writing The Stranger in My Recliner. 

Books about Aging 

With a combination of pragmatics and tenderness, McGettigan worked to improve Sophie's physical, emotional and mental health.

[I received a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.]

Films about Aging O-Z

Jessica Tandy & Hume Cronyn
Photo by Alan Light.

This is Part III of a three-part list.

The first half lists A-F. The second half lists G-N.

[Last updated 17 September 2019 to add
What They Had (2018)]

O'Horten (2007). A 67-year-old railway engineer in Norway is retiring after 40 years. Odd Horten is a man of strict routine and very little words. But on his first day of retirement, his life falls off the rails.  How will he structure his life once work doesn't structure it for him?  Full Review

Old Goats (2010). Three older men offer each other support as they seek to hit their stride during retirement. They are looking for ways to have adventures, romance the ladies, leave a legacy and preserve their strength.

Old Partner (2009). This award-winning, high grossing documentary from Korea shows the year in the life of an octogenarian farmer and his 40-year-old ox.  The man's wife provides running commentary as she works, but the man and the ox mainly are silent as they perform very hard physical labor all day even with age-related challenges.

(#145) Olive Kitteridge (2014). The book adapted to a mini series by HBO follows a math teacher from main over 25 years--from midlife to late life.  In a quiet manner, the series shows the complexities and heartaches of life. But the characters find ways to survive. Frances McDormand won an Emmy for her portrayal of Kitteridge.