User reviews

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.

Yeah these two dudes are just salesmen, this whole "documentary" is just a promo for their book & website & stuff. Pretty obvious right from the start with the scripted inspirational speaker type talk. Who falls for this crap? I got about 5 min in and was like Nope, I smell a fraud. The idea of minimalism is great, but these two guys are just tryin to get rich . I'm not even sure I believe they ARE minimalists or if that's just what they show you on camera. The houses they show are probably just Air B n Bs they rented to film the documentary.

Under the guise of a primer on minimalism, this film starts out with doom-and-gloom about American consumerism to pivot into documenting a book tour. Viewers are subjected to endless scenes from the book tour, shots of the stars hugging strangers for no reason (are they promoting minimalism or the free hugs movement?) and the same repetitive information. If the lack of substance in this documentary is any indication, the book they're promoting must be pretty light-on.

Unfortunately the doom and gloom left me feeling more depressive than empowered, which undermines the message about the positive power of minimalism. This probably should have been a 10-minute TED talk, rather than a feature-length documentary.

If you're looking for a great primer on minimalism, keep looking. The hint is in the title: this show is about "The Minimalists" (the moniker the stars of the documentary go by, rather than Minimalism.

I really wanted to like this, the subject interested me a lot. But it just didn't do it. When the two guys talked and gave monologues, it was obviously scripted, in a bad way. They seemed really egocentric. I think they were trying to promote themselves instead of the lifestyle. I wish they'd just tell us more about minimalism itself rather then their stories and telling us why they're and we're wrong. More like a documentary then just wanting us to become minimalists, probably to benefit them since they're public figures. Honestly, I had to watch the whole 1 hour film in 4 different sittings cause I was really bored.

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 masturbation. 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.

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.

This may well be the most cringe-worthy film experience I've ever waded through in my life. There's nothing "minimal" about the excess marketing these annoying "huggers" are up to here, which appears to be the entire raison d'etre of the documentary, more about promoting their book than laying out a cogent manifesto for a movement. For instance, you hear glowing testimonials for "tiny houses" that sound like advertisements and then you note that Jay Austin, the guy doing the talking, is a "Tiny House Designer". If these upscale hipsters find satisfaction in assuaging their consumerism guilt by swinging to the opposite extreme I say more power to them. But don't try to convince me that it's the only way I can exist without contributing to "the problem". And I'm not buying it as a philosophy, it's already been done much better by Guatama Buddha (who gets some lip service in a short segment but not much more). But then again they don't present a compelling case for minimalism in the first place. And the cherry on the top is all the crappy totally extraneous music that intrudes into the proceedings on a regular basis. For a film about minimalism all that unnecessary music seemed to show it for what it really was: a boring long infomercial that insults viewers' sensibilities and intelligence in one fell swoop.

So disappointing. Loved No Impact Man so thought I would like this. A few parts were mildly interesting but this movie has no focus and was a hugely missed opportunity to present more facts and less random clips of generalizations and self promotions. Zero depth.

Always been fascinated by minimalism in architecture, philosophy, art, music, food etc. I was expecting this to be an intelligent documentary about the origins and the various philosophical developments of minimalism and its influence on cultures ,architecture, art. I was expecting to hear about the most important link to Japanese culture. Nothing. This 'documentary' is just a simplistic commercial Hollywood attempt to explain something to dummies. So sad, it had a lot of potential.

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.

So, minimalists making fun of people who wait for Black Friday. I'm sorry that some of us don't get rich off of a blog. You know you are only making money because I waited in line on Black Friday to get a TV and then saved for an Xbox so I could order Netflix and watch your damn documentary. As you run your mouth and pretend you were poor with pictures of 5 cars in your driveway of your house. We got 4 people in a 1 bedroom apartments, that is poor.... ugh everything about these guys is just awful!!!

You guys choose to be minimal. I am a minimalist not by choice and I will tell you what, it's not fun. Seeing 2 guys who live a very privileged life, living as if they are poor, and then making it seem as if it's some sort of life choice, makes me sick.

Trying to scrape together food for dinner, from a pantry full of a canned food, because we need to keep food stocked up when we can get it, means I'm not being minimal, according to you.

You have a dining room table I don't. I have a tiny fold of coffee table. The place I moved into had awful bedbugs so we have a mattress on the floor, no bed frame because they are too expensive . You don't know anything about real minimalism.... I use all the space in my home because I can barely move when it's empty.

I can't afford to even buy a tiny house. So stop acting like that's cheaper.... I am so sick of this tiny house crap. Like you can afford to live in some huge beautiful home, but HEY LOOK EVERYONE, I CHOOSE TO LIVE LIKE YOU WHEN I DONT HAVE TO, so YOU should be happy living like that too. The whole thing couldn't be anymore pretentious.

There are so many real "minimalists" out there that live a simple life because that is all they can afford. They live out of a bag. They have nothing, and they wish they had more. Yet we have people over here that can afford what they want when they want, throwing it in their faces.

You literally aren't minimalists at all. If you want something or need something you buy it. The only difference is you just toss it after because if you want or need to you can just buy it again.

Seriously... dumbest crap I've ever seen. You wanna be a real minimalist? Don't use a toilet or toilet paper, eat with your hands, don't wash your clothes or shower, don't have a car, donate almost all your money. Then come back and talk to me about your enlightened bull.

Op Ed is the more appropriate category for this film. There's nothing factual here; literally just the opinion of two white dudes.

Vapid, empty, disappointing and self - righteous 👎🏽

I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW BAD IT IS. During the quarantine I realized that I am very into this idea called minimalism. Not because I know or listen anything about it, mainly because during the pandemic everything felt so boring and meaningless and I personally felt like I was drowning. So I just kinda started to like the idea of minimalism basically and I even renew my wardrobe, took out sooo many useless things and buy a few things that will be useful to wear. This felt sooo fresh and I wanted to continue doing so. But I didn't know where or how to continue in my house, or even in my life. I was so sure that Netflix will have at least a few great docs about minimalism, and I was so excited to watch them. Plot Twist: Netflix was a big big failure. There were only 2 documentaries which is based on the same 2 people, and I hated every second of both docs. They were so boring. I don't wanna know about their dam* life??? I'm not interested in it, give me some good clues about minimalism, or talk about its purpose for god's sake??? They only talked about their boring ex life and their boring new life. They sometimes said meaningful things about minimalism, how less is more but they just repeated those sentences sooo much in the docs that I hated the idea of minimalism even though I was into the idea. They don't have anyhing to say actually, they just repeat the same sentences that the whole documentary could be tidied up in a few sentences. I don't actually even know what I watched at this point. I don't know who or why someone convinced you but you guys are not the people who are going to teach the idea of minimalism. Big big waste of time.

In my six and half decades of life, I've experienced having nothing, and I've had everything.

Guess which of those made me happy?

"Money doesn't buy happiness." Oh yeah...? NEITHER DOES POVERTY.

Money buys security, a roof over the head, comfort...all the GOOD things. I like my 2 Ply, thanks.

Do not buy into the BS. If YOU like having nothing, love to travel (good luck nowadays), zero ties, etc...? Hooray for you, have a cookie and go have a nice life.

For some of us, there's generations of stories embedded in our "things." Nearly every item has a story, many an item a gold mine.

DO NOT TELL US WHAT TO LIKE. I like my life as is. Nobody needs to shove this down my throat. Talk to my partner, he wants nothing. I handed him keys to his own motor home: Go have fun. As it rots in the barn. Guess he likes "my things" too.

Nothing about the ecosystem is going to change if I sell everything and live in a box. The only ones who that benefits are those who buy my things and my 5BD house on all its acreage. Any money I make will go to what...? What's the rent for a studio apartment's closet, something like $3k a month...? Gtfoh

Don't drink the Kool Aid.

This sort of thing is awful and brainwashy.

Everything this documentary had to say was said in the first 15 minutes. The movie's entire remaining hour & 5 minutes were dedicated to saying the same thing over & OVER again but to different people. The fatal optimist that I am, I kept watching the documentary hoping for some new nuggets of information. There were none.

As a recently retired person and one who had to seriously downsize, I was very interested in the subject. The documentary was too much about a travelogue while providing very little substance about the subject.

BIG WASTE OF MY TIME.

Is like a book ads, the only good reason to see îs the 5 minute when the meditation îs presented. Good look

I was super excited to watch the documentary after reading the title. To my dismay. this is nothing what I anticipated. I get that philosophy of minalism differs subjective to every individual but what is depicted on this documentary is not near to idea of minimalism for normal people. Maybe for millionaires. Idk! Anyway those two gentleman is brilliant marketers who are expertize to sell their digital product via falsifying audiences. Claiming it is how minimalism works.

To see the real minimalist life style, go to india or any emerging economic countries.

Great direction but little disappointed with the content.