Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things

Are we hard-wired by evolution to be compulsive consumerists? That is one of the prevailing theories in filmmaker Matt D'Avella's Minimalism, a documentary about the sharp downside of buying more stuff for our already-overstuffed lives. The film largely tracks a pair of authors, Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, as they tour the U.S. supporting their book Everything That Remains, while also dispensing wisdom and hugs. Both are formerly stressed-out corporate executives who decided that life was too short to work for too many things that have ephemeral value. As apostles of the simple-living movement, they and similar practitioners show viewers what their stripped-down lives look like: living in tiny houses, reducing wardrobes to essentials, doing away with gadgets, and so on. The whole idea is not only to reduce one's footprint on the planet but also to become oriented to a life that is not paycheck-to-paycheck, or one that measures satisfaction through acquisition. (One notion discussed here is that our primitive ancestors were always in consumption mode for the sake of survival, and as a species we still carry that psychological burden.) Minimalism doesn't proselytize or shove alternative values down viewers' throats, but it does make simplicity look awfully appealing. Recommended. [Note: this is also available with public performance rights on DVD for $89 for public libraries and $295 for colleges and universities from The Video Project, www.videoproject.com.] Aud: H, C, P. (T. Keogh)