Director Yaniv Rokah is a barrista\wannabe actor in Santa Monica, where he encounters the woman who lives in the laundromat across the street.
Marie ‘Mimi’ Haist was born in 1925, married young and ‘obeyed’ her domineering husband. After 29 years of marriage she was left with nothing when he preferred his mistress. She was out on the streets in her 50s, homeless, spending her days in a 
laundromat until one cold night a kind laundromat owner didn’t kick her out at closing time. She’s been living in Fox Laundry ever since – some 25 years now.
The documentary is pretty low-key about how the laundromat guy, Stan Fox, was really her saviour. Not just for letting her stay, but for knowing her story, and for putting up with her. She’s not exactly a picnic; if she doesn’t like you, you’ll know it. But if you show her kindness, she’s a blast. She doesn’t work for Stan Fox but she does work in the laundromat, undercutting his business and often making more money than the actual employees. She likes nothing better than putting on some tunes and dancing her head off.
She’s 88 years young in the film and dresses like she’s 12. Her face is one of years hard-lived. Her teeth are nonexistent. Her back hunched, perhaps a side effect of sleeping scrunched up in a lawn chair in a laundromat for so long.
You kind of have to watch this film. Queen Mimi is a character, one you’d hardly credit in a movie, and one you have to see in a documentary to believe. She’s got her philosophies, 
her hard-won wisdom, and an outlook that’s totally unique. She’s cantankerous and whimsical and totally intolerant of homeless people (she doesn’t see the irony). And she has a knack for making famous friends: Zach Galifianakis has taken her to movie premieres (he met her while doing his laundry some 18 years ago), Renee Zellweger takes her shopping, and if you promise to keep a secret, Zach’s about to put her up in an apartment all her own. She hasn’t had a home since 1976.
What a fascinating portrait of a complex human being. We step over homeless people all the time, but everybody has a story, and this is Mimi’s. It’s heartening to see so many people rally around her, wonderful to see that people care. I kind of wish the same for all those lining the sidewalks.
ASSHOLES WATCHING MOVIES 
Now this is a reason to believe in the kindness in humanity. Thanks Jay.
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How cool, though I wonder if she will miss the goings on and people in the laundry when she is on her own in an apartment.
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She still “works” there 6 or 7 days a week!
She’d had a couple of housing situations before where she seemed to end up back in her chair at the Laundromat so I wondered too how long it would last, but she’d been there for months when the doc wrapped up.
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I’m betting she’ll spend more time back at the laundromat than in the apartment, if she stays at all. Old habits, especially the familiar ones, are hard to break.
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This sounds wonderful!
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That is the sweetest story I’ve heard in a long long time. Yes!! I would definitely see this movie. Thanks Jay, in this particulars time frame it’s always good to hear something so awesome about people.
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Yes, it is nice to be uplifted.
And did I hear correctly that you are on the Netflix bandwagon? That’s where I found this!
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Oh lol, yep gonna start next month , gotta see my Gilmore girls 😂😱❣️
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I agree. Watching this documentary shows the humanist side of people. May this magnificent ‘Queen Mimi’ live many more years surrounded by love and living comfortably. Blessings to so many who have made such a positive difference in this woman’s life!
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I would love to see this one to learn more about Mimi!
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I could use a follow-up myself!
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This is beautiful! She has had a hard life for sure but despite it all, she still can dance and she has all her marbles. This is wonderful what Zach is doing for her and what the laundromat owner did for her all those years. You are so right about the homeless….quite a few years ago, there was a homeless woman who was found dead on the streets of Toronto. It was found she was a supermodel from back in the 1950’s for major magazines like Vogue and did the Paris runways but she suffered from mental illness which was not looked at the same way as it is now.
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Yes, we don’t do a good enough job of understanding root causes of homelessness. It’s often not just a money\housing issue. People have a lot of demons, and the medical field hasn’t entirely caught up to it.
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Okay. Now that World War Z review from Mimi makes sense 😉 (to me)… Thanks for highlighting this hidden gem! I’ve got to track it down now.
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It sounds like a fascinating real-life tale. I’d like to see the documentary, although I’m a little disturbed by her attitude toward homeless people. I guess she is, like you say, something of a complex character.
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Reckon I’ll need to look out for this one… nothing beats a take of a mean old lady full of resilience and character. I definitely think I’d enjoy this.
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What and great and interesting review. Just like the film, taking a seemingly uninteresting story and winning the reader over to the point of wishing to go see it. 🙂
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Sounds interesting
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