A few weeks ago, I had seen a documentary with my family, recommended by my sister, titled Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things. The documentary focused on Joshua Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, two life long friends that share their life experiences and their slow conversion to minimalism. We get to know them, as they go on their book tour, discussing minimalism. While the documentary introduced some interesting ideas that could prompt some self-evaluation and reflection, it didn’t necessarily delve into the concept or philosophy of minimalism itself. It discussed the correlation between advertising and our way of living, and a little bit of social media is brought up.
This is another documentary following the duo, and Matt D’Avella is the returning director. Unfortunately, I am disappointed to report that this project doesn’t expand or educate the viewer all that much on minimalism, and it doesn’t seem like an improvement from the first documentary that was made. There is no sense of change from the first film, people are being interviewed, but they are saying pretty much the same thing. Joshua and Nick recall their life, and significant moments in their life, that are in some way related to minimalism, or at least how they interpret “stuff”. I’m not gonna sit here, and discredit the experiences these guys have had, in fact I actually believe some of it helps the cause. But it gets blatantly repetitive.
I think what would’ve made this better, is if there was more of a counter. Because it feels very one-sided, making it seem like having possessions and materials is an awful thing. It almost seems like the audience is bring indirectly guilt-tripped. If you want your message to be powerful, and have the result be strong, then you have to factor in the pro’s and con’s. What I got out of this documentary, is that we should declutter, or get rid of our “stuff”. First off, that point was already mentioned in the first film, and here they really hammer it in, as if we didn’t get it the first time. Second, that argument feels very surface-level and vague. Surely Minimalism isn’t just about getting rid of stuff, but this documentary doesn’t dive into other ideas.
The problem is, this documentary isn’t expounding on any new territory or ideas. It’s saying the same thing that the last one said. The Minimalists: Less Is Now isn’t the worst thing I’ve seen. Matt D’Avella has still made a moderately engaging film. I’m also glad he trimmed the runtime to under an hour, making it more succinct. But nothing about this seems like an improvement, and I feel like I have gained little to nothing about Minimalism.
Cedric Cinema 