Review of Downsizing (2017) by Trailesque — 11 Aug 2021

Here is a lavishly weird-normal SF comedy from Payne (and his co-writer Jim Taylor). It is something new for them, since their previous flicks have mostly been grounded in middle class American reality. This begins very much that way but eventually spins off in a completely unexpected direction, and ends up someplace unique.

The premise is interesting - imagine a technology that allows people to shrink themselves down to a fraction of normal size. What would humanity do with that? Well, use it to stretch the family budget and retire to gated communities and lives of leisure, of course! Your dollar buys a lot more when you are 5 inches tall. Alas, the same problems that plague the regular world (e.g. poverty and illness) reappear in this one. An impending environmental disaster rears up, and our average guy hero (well played by Damon as always) ends up heading off to Norway and an encounter with the second coming of Noah's ark. The visual effects are very interesting, but some of the characters are not exactly a pleasure to spend time with. Overall this is a unique motion picture, and well worth a look. Unfortunately, it was not a hit at the box office, and ended up losing some money.