Rating: 
January 15, 2008
SOME 19-year-olds spend their summers trying to find where the latest "Girls Gone Wild" is being filmed.
Some get jobs.
And only one that we know of decided to move into an assisted-living facility and make a film of his own.
It could have been called, "Old Folks Gone Wise," but this 19-year-old, Andrew Jenks, decided to call his film simply "Andrew Jenks, Room 335."
It's so good that it doesn't need a fancy name.
The show Jenks made is the story of his 30-odd days living in an old-folks home in Florida called Harbor Place. Not a sad, horrid story of abuse or even one of simply watching the machine break down, this is the story of a kid who figured that old people are more than disposable beings in our increasingly youth-obsessed, celebrity-driven world.
He figured that maybe they could teach him some things - particularly since they had been around a little longer than he had.
It's almost impossible to believe that a kid could produce a documentary like this. It's a gorgeous, hilarious, sad, wonderful, unblinking look at the joy of life - even at the end of it.
We meet and live with the folks at Harbor Place along with young Jenks. Like any society, Harbor Place has its funny people, its sad ones, its quirky ones and leaders of the pack.
We meet Armida "Tammy" Signoriile, a 96-year-old with the spirit of a teenager. If she'd been only 80 years younger, Jenks might have been be in trouble. (When they first meet, Tammy asks, "Are you the college boy? Boy, are you in trouble!")
When he glances at the bag she's holding from the drug store, she says: "I just picked up my birth control pills!"
Then there's Bill Delarm, an 80-year old who wears a different Hawaiian shirt every day and makes himself useful by assisting the other residents. Well, that's when he's not thinking about punching out various people - like Jenks, whom he grows to love.
During Jenks' stay, a blackout hits the whole area around the home. Only the hall lights, where were powered by a generator, were working. Jenks and his cameraman walked the halls bringing comfort and help to residents who were running out of oxygen. Terrifying.
At other times, some residents discuss how unfortunate it is that, in the US, we don't keep our oldsters home with us any longer - and why.
Jenks comes to love these people and looks forward each day to hanging around with them.
He becomes so close to the residents that he's actually there holding the hand of one of my favorites just before she dies.
Bravo, Andrew Jenks. Brilliant.
"Andrew Jenks, Room 335"
Tonight at 7 on Cinemax
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