Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things

Good movie!

source: Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things

A succession of wall street types clear a fair deal of stuff out of their big, fancy, rich bro condos. It hard to empathise with people like this, especially the "homeless" guy who has access to enough money to constantly move around the world staying in hotels. They may be able to cut 6 shirts down to 2, but they clearly can't escape the stranglehold of capitalism. Buy their new book.

Oh, My. Where to start. A bunch of young, good looking, men (mostly) find the path to true happiness: getting rid of all your stuff and live like a (rich!) homeless person. Wow. Wonderful, isn't it? This 'documentary' is nothing but 100 minutes long self *. It is so boring to watch these well-to-do Americans - to most intolerable nation on the planet - doing us all a favour by not buying the latest iphone or fashionable clothes. I have no idea what is the target audience of this nonsense, but it would be really funny to revisit these pretentious idiots in 20 years - after they will 'get over' their youthful ideology and just like their parents and their grandparents will settle in suburban America, picket fence and all.

This is a documentary consisting of many interviews and stories. These dots are connected with a book tour but also make this film look like a long commercial for the book. It is okay but this long ad is superficial without details. I guess most viewers are already their blog readers. A list of bullets points that already mentioned in the blog without any deep thoughts is simply a waste of time and money. Some take home messages (with no detail in this film)： 1）You do not need so many stuff. 2）Meditation helps. 3）We do not use our house as often as we thought. 4）333 closet 5）It is hard for you to be happier when you reach the income threshold of 80K dollars per year. 6）Love people, use things

I had to write a review about how extremely shallow and stupid this documentary is. It is one of the stupidest films I have seen in the last few years. Opens with guy with a smart phone, a car, a house, and everything he needs, who tries to explain how proud he is of having so little in his life. Almost all the people featured in this documentary are upper middle class americans who realised they have been overspending money on trash. Completely unbeknowst that this is not normal. And infact, we dont live like that in Europe, Asia or Africa. Guess what America, we know you overspend. You caused the housing crash financial crisis ten years ago. So here we are witnessing a bunch of idiots basically who now claim this thing called minimalism is their new religion. Typical american way of thinking, taking everything to the extreme. Either they want maximalism or they want minimalism. Completely disregarding that this approach has been practiced in other countries such as those following buddhism, where Buddha preached this 2500 years ago. There's nothing new with the concept of this documentary. The only new thing here is the complete lack of self-insight for these americans. The storytelling is just so offputting, and it doesnt help with one of the main characters who used to be a CEO, needing to hug everyone. He talks more about hugging people who doesn't want a hug, than he talks about minimalism. Alot of lost poor souls here coming together over a new found religion.

If you have not heard about the minimalism movement and feel curious about it I totally recommend this movie (available on Netflix), it could be eye-opening and inspiring for you. However as a person who has read a few articles and watched a few videos on minimalism and consumerism issues, I found this documentary lacking in deep, new and engaging ideas. It felt more like a long promotional video for the book with interesting stories of people thrown in between. The excerpt from president Carter's speech was the most interesting part to me, the message might not be new but it was delivered with clarity and strength.

It's like those 'get rich quick' schemes that explain how to sell people on 'get rich quick schemes'. Be a minimalist by making money promoting minimalism. Living out of a suitcase in rented flats or buying a tiny house is affluence, supported by selling things like books on minimalism.

I was excited for this movie and found it very disappointing. After spending the last several years "minimalizing" I was hoping to see some great insights here, or something inspiring, but it was ultimately just boring. You can get so much more out of all of the resources online such as blogs and websites. This film was just a shallow review of some of the big names in this "movement" like Josh Becker, Leo Babauta, Project 333... they barely spoke or said anything of actual value to merit bothering to appear in this film. SO glad I did not pay to see this and waited for it to come out on Netflix! You will get way more from google searches about minimalism then you ever will from this film.

Ultimately this movie is just a waste of time...it offers no useful tips or instructions on how to 'live' the minimalist lifestyle, instead being filled with various talking heads saying how it 'changed their lives' and 'made their life worth living'. We see the main duo walking/driving around to various events, interviews, etc. where they are to give a talk, but do we ever get to actual hear anything useful? no. So, how? why? Tell me! Teach me! Many promises, no substance. Skip it. Spend the 79 minutes googling 'minimalist living' instead.