Downsizing Movie Review
by Myla Tosatto
Alexander Payne is clever. Case in point, he directed three of my favorite all time favorite movies: Election, The Descendants, and Nebraska. He is just terrific about thinking outside of the box. In his latest movie, Downsizing, he thinks really SMALL outside of the box. Like, really SMALL. The movie starts with an interesting concept of how to deal with human sustainability. The movie argues that we are overpopulating and littering the planet into oblivion. What is the fictional answer to this dilemma? We get small. Five inch people use much way less resources than 5 foot people.
Tired of never getting ahead in Omaha, Paul Safranek (Matt Damon) and his wife Audrey (Kristin Wiig) decide to get small in order to live a better economic life. With advice from Paul’s friend, Dave, they move to Leisure Land to live the life of the small. Things don’t work out exactly as planned and Paul finds himself alone and adrift in his new life until he meets his wild neighbor Dusan Mirkovic (Christoph Waltz) and his house cleaner, Ngoc Lan Tran (Hong Chau). His life then changes dramatically. Let’s just say that a chemically enhanced Matt Damon is a delightful Matt Damon.
Downsizing is like The Borrowers or Honey, I Shrunk the Kids for the philosophical set. Humans on planet Earth have a hard road ahead of us,but, hey, we might as well enjoy movies while we travel it. So get your kid sized snacks ready (no jumbo popcorn and oversized sodas allowed) and go on Paul Safranek’s spiritual journey.
For what it’s worth, I would rather not downsize. A world without birds and insects is not a world I would want to live in. Discuss.
When scientists discover how to shrink humans to five inches tall as a solution to over-population, Paul (Matt Damon) and his wife Audrey (Kristen Wiig) decide to abandon their stressed lives in order to get small and move to a new downsized community — a choice that triggers life-changing adventures. This movie is rated R.
