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Jim VandenBosch, When Young and Old Connect, The Gerontologist, Volume 64, Issue 10, October 2024, gnae119, https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnae119
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Film: Driveways (83 min)
Director: Andrew Ahn
Distributor: FilmRise (available on various streaming platforms)
Release Date: May 2020 (USA)
The story that unfolds in Driveways is not a complicated one, nor is it overly dramatic. But the film shines. The story begins when a young single mother and her 8-year-old son pull into the driveway of a house late one evening. After entering the front porch, the woman tries to open the door to the house, but the key to the lock will not work and the light on the porch will not go on. She and her son get back in the car and go to a motel for the night.
The next morning we overhear her talking on her phone to someone from the utilities company about reconnecting the power. In this conversation, we learn that the woman’s sister has died and that she is there to clean out the house and get it ready to sell. When she and her son return to the house later that morning, she tries the back door and is able to open it. She pauses at the doorway, peering into the dimly lit house. She enters slowly, seemingly caught off guard by what she is seeing. Sharply, she tells her son not to follow her in. The camera then tracks her walking through piles and piles of hoarded stuff, and she puts her hand to her nose.
