Greetings,
A while back, I wrote about my love/hate relationship with the show House Hunters. It's complicated. Well, as it happens, that show has a spin-off called Tiny House Hunters, which I find even more interesting...and more infuriating. Seriously, the amount of times I hear people on that show walk into a TINY house and say "I don't know. This is kinda small" makes me want to punch a wall. No kidding, it's small! That's the point. But whatever. I still watch, because I find the concept of the Tiny House craze quite intriguing. And if you can do it? Well, God bless. You go right ahead. So, when I noticed this doc, I had to check it out.
Small is Beautiful is from 2014 and, keeping in the spirit of tiny things, it is barely over an hour long. That might be a good thing, because there is really only so much you can say about this whole phenomenon. This documentary chose a few people to tell their stories, and they just so happen to also be people who are into the tiny house movement. They talk about what led them to choosing this way of life, how they've dealt with the process and we even get to watch the process of building the houses, which is a task that many of them take on themselves. Now as much as I enjoy watching house building shows on HGTV, that was probably the most boring part of this film. Not that the rest of it fared much better.
Look, there were some moments that I found interesting, but not too much of it. I mean, I do like hearing stories of people who have lived different lives than I have, and especially with this, I was hoping for more about the actual experience. That does interest me. As much as I think that some people are just buying into a fad when they go the tiny house route or they just want to not spend as much money, I know that some of them are just natural vagabonds who never want to stay in one place for a long time. And I know that there are people who have occupations like photography or music, where they travel constantly and would do well to invest in a very small and mobile home. I guess I just wanted to hear more of their stories. I would have even liked it if they followed someone who was traveling across the country with their house. That would have been something. Then, it could have been a road trip movie, and I love those.
I suppose, if I could change anything else about this, it would be adding some of the history of people living like this, not just those who do it nowadays. We could have learned more about how it was done hundreds of years ago when it was the only choice to live with limited means. It may have been interesting. I also would have loved to hear more stories from people who tried it and regretted it. You know they're out there.
I guess that's all I can say about this documentary. Keeping my analysis tiny, as well, it would seem. Look, if you're someone who likes the Tiny House Hunters show, you might enjoy this. Like I said, it's not that long, so you wouldn't be spending too much time on it. But I certainly wouldn't call it a must-see. It does have a few stand out moments, but altogether, this just wasn't completely a film about what the title implies. The tiny house aspect was almost incidental. I wish they either would have delved deeper into the history of it, as I said, or have it be completely about the process of the experience, the cost, the labor and all that. The technical side of it, if you will. Rather, they had a mix of both of those things, but I'm not sure it was executed in the best way from those angles. So, I can't exactly highly recommend it, but if you do take a look, you might find something you like.
Love and full moons,
Becky the Writer
