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Reviews
The Minimalists: Less Is Now (2021)
This is a documentary about Joshua and Ryan - not about minimalism; pretentious
If you want to learn what minimalism is or how it can help you, you won't get this from this documentary. This feels like the rehash of the first one, and it's basically a retelling of the TED talk that you can find on YouTube. There is nearly nothing new of substance in here, unfortunately.
The documentary starts by selling us a premise of "you'll learn why less is more but for that, you need to learn our story first". But the fact is we never get past their story, I was listening through stories of Josh and Ryan and was waiting for the "actual documentary" to start. But it never starts.
It touches multiple issues, it feels like it lacks substance and direction. This is a documentary about Joshua and Ryan - not about minimalism, keep that in mind.
The camera work and the choice of secondary guests is great, and I wanted to see more of that and more of them. Josh and Ryan, despite being prominent figures in the minimalism scene, are not relatable for most viewers.
Unfortunately, the criticisms from the first document, are even truer in this one and both Josh and Ryan often feel like they are humble bragging their wealth, six figures, their cars, or houses and telling us how awesome it is when you decide not to have it. I believe they are honest and if I ever have as much as they - I will try to live within my means. It feels very pretentious.
While I understand the message - don't buy a BMW on credit if you can't afford it - most people don't have the luxury of NOT taking debt to own a house or a flat.
If you wish to learn about minimalism: I highly recommend Matt D'Avella's YouTube channel (he is "behind the camera" in this one), the TED talk by The Minimalists or even the first documentary, not this one.
1983 (2018)
First 45 minutes are terrible, get ready for that
This is a review after the first episode. There are three main issues with it, one might be irrelevant to you. EDIT: edit after the whole season at the bottom.
1. The dialogues are terrible. 90% of them are boring exposition dumps in which characters talk about history or what they will do in next few seconds. Then you watch them do it. And repeat. Long, boring, repeated over and over.
2. The dialogues are terrible. The actors are either bad or their lines are way over the top, full of patos. All the talk about freedom, justice, law and principles... terrible. If you are not a native Polish speaker - this might not be that big of an issue.
3. The plot has potential. It might really be a solid piece of a story. But for the first 42 minutes (out of an hour) I was sitting there thinking "when will it finally start...?".
EDIT: the second half is really worthwhile. The plot shows potential, the scenografy is very good. Great parallels to historical characters, nice easter eggs. I actually change my score to 7/10. I'd give it an eight if not for the super-slow and clumsy first two episodes.