Yes, a whole documentary just about The A Word. George Carlin would be so proud. Not that kind of A word? Well, then it must be the other more risqué A word. No? Oh. it’s a documentary about aging. Hold my beer.
I feel constantly triggered by media as I never feel, nor has anyone correctly guessed my age (because I dress like a child), and yet I hear my age all the time. I remember rewatching Frasier within the last few years, and in the early seasons, he said his age, and it matched mine. And I felt so old, aligning with an accomplished psychiatrist, divorced man, father, radio host, and sexually promiscuous. Just this year, Jason Segal had to open his stupid mouth on Shrinking, and I learned that I’m the same age as Jimmy on Shrinking. So, I do constantly think about aging, in that I feel like I haven’t done it yet, but media is telling me otherwise. I should be an accomplished psychiatrist by now, with a child, and no longer married for either reason, at least somewhat sexually promiscuous, and successful enough in my field to anchor my own sitcom. Or, my life be interesting and filling enough to be one. Instead, I’m here, writing this review, in a room with the kinds of things kids still collect, and we’re going to talk about aging.
And we should, because if we are lucky, we all get to do it. The question is for how long, and the newer question is can we use science and medicine to improve the aging process. The documentary addresses that the aging field has been full of quacks in the past selling snake oil to the desperate looking for their youthful restoration, though this one leans a bit more into actual real science. That means, it may not show as much promise for us to all live past 100 as you might think, but it might find more ways of making that process easier and more graceful, and thereby continuing to slowly adjust age expectancy. That last part feels heavily influenced by outside forces like forever chemicals, microplastics, climate change, ultra processed foods, and every other convenience we continue to make for ourselves along the way.But, at least, if we need a hip replacement, we can do that now. No longer is a broken hip a death sentence.
The documentary also draws parallels with a lovely older gentleman, who recently lost his wife, and talks about how the dog she adopted keeps him young, and how in his eighties he still gets up and walks around. I’m screwed, by the way, because I actually prefer to sit and watch movies, so going out and getting a limb down from a tree isn’t my gig, even if I got my sight back. At best, if I could see again, I might mow my own yard. Might.
There’s also a young woman who talks about her journey and decision to tackle aging, and how that got her an Oxford education (though her benefactors turned out to be creeps), and how she’s focused on tangible work moving forward. It seems as though it is easier to work on pets, and make them healthier. I learned a bit more about how we do that as well.
This is a wonderful documentary, which has an array of things we’ve done, and things we’re working on. For some reason, it sounds like its score was either available in the public domain, or was ripped from an infomercial, so my biggest gripe is to kill the music, but the content here is what it is. Because there’s so much junk science out there, it swerves away from spending too much time on what might be, because often this age group is sold things on a wing and a prayer that is under regulated, and does nothing. Seriously, have you looked into that one drug that is supposed to help your mental acuity? Just because something has commercials, doesn’t mean it is for you.
No audio description, like most indie films seeking distribution I catch at festivals. If I had to guess where this goes, I’m not sure. It isn’t something that would attract a younger demographic that everyone is looking for, so it almost has to be some entity that almost unabashedly admits it has an aging crowd. CBS shows typically skew older, and PAramount could pick this up, I just don’t know what they’d do with it other than drop it on their streaming service.
I appreciate that we’ve boldly dared to discuss “The A Word” out in the open like this. Quite frankly, it’s about time. Now, where did I put my keys?
Fresh: 8.3/10
