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.

I am one kind of person who live for more stuff, actually I care much about what people think, and of course what I own. When they compliment me for the success I got with those expensive stuff, I feel proud and happy but not for long. I keep buying stuff, to maintain the proudness about these. Afterall I realize people don't really care about what I got. The movie is somehow describe me, people may call they're crazy to go backward to the norm of society. Yes they do. But It's a good thing for us both in term of metal health and physical health when the environment get more burden from scare resources and pollution. And why this movie don't give any specific direction to minimalism and the purpose of it. I think it advice us to give be concentrate on each individual's important things. And that's what different between people. We can't tell exactly. We gonna find out our all ways. I feel grateful watching this. I will give myself a time to grow and become a minimalist, not because they ask me to or I admire them. But just because I'm tired of the way I used to live : Living for more.

Minimalism can be an eye-opening message for anyone who hasn't been exposed to it, but for most, it's too little too late. Documentaries like Food Inc and An Inconvenient Truth were ahead of their time, coming out before the zenith of the information age. But minimalism has pervaded through blogs, books, Youtube, college lectures and TED already, and making this documentary at this time was a very safe choice.

It has a little bit of everything, some dialogue from semi-famous bloggers (and Sam Harris), a few anecdotes, pictures, data, some shots of Americans being iphone-addicted slobs. It has a lot of good one liners but doesn't particularly go into any one thing in depth. I don't think I walked away from it knowing anything I didn't already know.

Every now and then, I do need a little reminder to cut back on my excess and focus on quality rather than quantity, and this movie does that. It's useful for that.But this joins a long line of works with the cliché message of "avoid consumerism, find fulfilment in your life and live in the woods maybe".

Having spent the last two-and-a-half years living on a 25 foot long sailboat, I am in a position to say a word or two about minimalism. And it could be said that in the realm of living a minimalistic life people who live on boats have been doing it for a long long time, much longer than what these filmmakers propose.

What I appreciate about the film is that it does propose a great many good thoughts for conversation on how life can be more full with less stuff.

Unfortunately where this film fell quite flat for me was in that most of the interviews are with people who are well- to-do making six-digit incomes and deciding that they don't want a big house instead choosing to live a minimalistic life which is fine. But a great many people choose to live minimalistic lives that are not as wealthy, and are simply working-class folks.

And as some of the reviewers here have pointed out a film about minimalism should be perhaps much shorter and to the point, so here is mine on the advantages of a minimalistic lifestyle.

I am asked often what it is like for my life on my small sailboat and the answer is that I have found stuff creates anchors. Like the death with ten thousand small cuts these anchors are each and of themselves so tiny, so small, so insignificant, that one does not notice them but in totality they wind up creating a sort of quicksand trapping you in place, doing a thing so that you may hold on to these things.

And that a life where your identity is deeply embedded in the things around you that are yours is in fact an extremely hollow form of existence.

As it stands for the warmer half of the year when I arrive home from work if there is wind, 15 minutes later I'm out sailing with very few anchors trailing behind.

I'm glad someone is saying these things about minimalism, I'm just not so sure these guys did the best job of it.

I have been getting into Minimalism and reading the blogs/listening to the podcasts of not only The Minimalist but many others featured in this film. So when notices came up about this movie I thought, heck ya, I'll go see it. And ,I'm sure like some others in the theater, I dragged along a loved one to see what they thought.

The unfortunate thing is that this movie gives out nothing of practical value to one who has not been researching, reading books, and watching YouTube videos on the subject. It's a nice promo and there is a smattering of interesting information...but not much.

The problem is on both ends of the spectrum. At the beginning of the spectrum is "what do I DO to be minimalist?" and the other end of the spectrum is "what is my actual end PURPOSE in becoming a minimalist?" This movie does not really address either end.

If you wanna talk PURPOSE go read James Wallman's Stuffocation. Brilliant book. Why do I and others get into Minimalism? Minimalism is the stepping stone towards clearing the way to going after what you REALLY want. Wallman's book discusses it in detail. This movie should have had a lot more of that. Especially in the case of Colin Wright. They had Colin Wright in the movie for, like, a minute. But his story is a lot more interesting. For him, Minimalism was not the end game...travel was the end game. Minimalism is how he achieved it. There should have been a lot more stories in the movie along this vein.

So how about the beginning of the spectrum? Here they failed too. Before the movie started a loud couple behind me were chatting away and one couldn't help but hear the conversation. The woman asked "does this have anything to do with that woman who wrote the Tidying Up book?" I couldn't help but inwardly smirk slightly...except in the end this woman had a point.

Some practical advice on HOW to go minimalist would have been as handy as some "other spectrum end" stuff on the why of it. There was a little bit about the 333 Project, but hell, The Minimalists didn't even discuss the famous "packing party." Numerous 5-minute videos on YouTube are going to give you more practical advice than you get here. There wasn't even any talk about psychology or your relationship to your things. This is an important aspect of the topic.

A few good things: that woman who discussed marketing and advertising...she was good. Interesting story about that newscaster that lost it on air. And Sam Harris. You can always give me more Sam Harris.