
The Bubble: Inside Boomer Paradise
Florida draws more retirees than any other state, and this film goes inside the sprawling retirement communities built to house them. Gated developments with their own golf courses, pools, and social clubs stand in for entire towns, designed so residents rarely need to leave. Interviews with people who have relocated there lay out what pulled them in: warm weather, low taxes, and a promise of endless leisure among peers their own age. The film treats these communities as a kind of bubble, a curated version of American life sealed off from the surrounding cities and their problems. It looks at the daily rhythms inside the gates, from planned activities to the social hierarchies that form among neighbors, and asks what gets gained and lost when an entire population segregates itself by age and income. The result is a portrait of a very specific American arrangement: paradise built to spec, and the trade-offs nobody mentions in the brochure.