Just finished watching it in Long Beach. I'd give it a generous C+, pretty meh. The book was better, and I thought the book was not good. I'd rate it right along with how I felt about the Minimalists (was I the only one disappointed in that film?). By the way, why do they have the guys from the minimalists in this? They had nothing to offer other than looking stoned and repeating platitudes, their only purpose was that they were recognizable -- super cheesy. The cynic in me thinks the author of the book is just trying to build up a brand for himself and using this film and book to build that brand, much like the frugal woods. That turns me off. His "new business" is to create this film and grab attention to build himself a brand. Meh.
The film would be much more compelling if the main characters were close to FI or had achieved it. As it is, they just got started so it feels really empty in terms of taking them seriously. It would be like watching someone do a documentary on how to lose weight, but is still extremely overweight and is on week 2 of the journey. They had some well known "famous" FI people in the film, but they got very little coverage -- mostly just sound bites. From what I read, the author insisted he be the star of the film and its focus, that was the main requirement to do the film in collaboration with the director -- again, the cynic in me sees this as self brand building. They had access to a lot of well known people in the community but didn't give them the depth they should have gotten to give the film more credibility.
Since the author wanted to be the focus, he should have done a proper documentary on their background -- what exposed him to FIRE, a better time line, more in depth discussion of their previous lifestyle versus their lifestyle now, more coverage of their challenges (which the book really gets into), and hard core numbers -- there was nothing in this film about their income/expense numbers which is a huge downside imo.
Imagine if this film focused just on the story of Joe and Allison. It would have been much more compelling and interesting following the story of 2 people who have gone through the entire process. A real case study.
Ideally, this would be a 10 year film following two people from the start to finish. But this would require patience and dedication instead of going for the quick money.
It's too bad, this thing had some potential.
