Customer Reviews

This is Nowhere: RV Camping at Wal-Mart

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As an RV nut here in the UK (www.myrv.co.uk), I read about this film elsewhere and sought it out on Amazon. As it turned out, I ended up buying it straight from the filmmakers themselves (nice one guys).

The only reason I have gone for four stars rather than five is that I think the producers should have put another item in the bonus feature section with more of their RV footage by way of giving the RV'ers something back, but that's just me, I could watch old and new RV's all day!

'This is Nowhere' is a modern classic that will one day be just as relevant a social document as the old John and Ruby Lomax films of the late 30's. Well done High Plains! (who I have no conection with by the way)

The film is as per the blurb, but essentially the makers of this documentary spoke to a number of the Wal-Marting full-time RV'ers and got their take on why they do what they do.

Though it is all very authentic and respectful and no one is ever laughed at behind their back, some of the editing and the apposition of dialogue versus environment is fabulously amusing. The cast of characters are all likeable, some are even loveable, the beauty of the lifestyle they have chosen of course is that when they all meet up at 'Wally's World' they are together for a few hours and then apart for a lifetime so, to each other, it makes no difference how nice they are.

This is one of the things that is most enjoyable about both the film and its subjects, and what holds your interest for the duration. These people give you a 100% dose of themselves, you can't hide who you are when you live your life in a coach.

Towards the end of course, the inevitable conclusion is reached, but the film gets there at a wonderfully tantalising pace.

God bless the Wal-Marters and indeed RV'ers everywhere, in 30 years time we'll be retired and Wal-Mart's RV section will be top of the list of must-see US destinations in our motorhome, but until then, Happy Trails!

I'm astonished that there was so little background or information about what's really going on here. This is just a sloppy film -- erratic, repetitive, boring and banal conversation.

Am I supposed to admire or feel kinship for a group of very affluent, mostly white, definitely middle class Americans whose desire to travel is mitigated by their insecure need to meet up at Wal-Mart as "the" place to meet "real" over-consuming, overweight, overaffluent Americans like themselves.

I don't consider this a successful documentary -- there's no "lifestyle" there.

This is simply fat, white middle class suburbanites taking their show on the road, burying their pets and leaving their trash along the way. I'm shocked at the waste and expense -- one of the first conversations was about how a couple spent $100,000 on vehicles for their "retirement."

The filmmakers make no attempt to tease out any thoughtful conversaion about the impact of their subjects on the environment or the economy vis a vis the amount of fuel they consume, how they deal with garbage, or even just the impact of shopping at Wal-Mart. Having lived in the Mid West, I'm familiar with the phenomenon of "snowbirds" - retirees who drive south to avoid snowy winters. There's no description of how that type of seasonal traveler fits into this picture.

In the Bay Area, there are a lot of people who are really homeless, who are much more aptly "gypsies" - living in broken down RVs and being chased off the streets where they park to sleep at night.

The filmmaker could have done so much more with this topic by looking at the different types of lifestyles, circumstances and socioeconomic support networks of people who live in RVs and campers. Not all RVers are affluent, overweight, white retirees with apparently unlimited financial resources and no concept of environmentalism. Just sad and off-putting.

This movie is like one huge Wal-Mart commercial. Not all RV'ing seniors' lives revolve around Wal-Mart. Yes, Wall-Mart lets people park in their parking lots, but plenty of RV'ers rent a spot in the RV parks you can find in any city.
I would have prefered a documentary about all retirees traveling in RVs, not one just about the percent of them you find in Wall-Mart parking lots.