Downsizing is a sci-fi comedy about a man (Matt Damon) who undergoes an experimental process: being shrunk down to five inches tall to help save the planet. Expect to see a little blood, some fighting and arguing, and lab mice who appear to be harmed; minor characters die. Language includes several uses of "f--k," plus "s--t," "a--hole," and more. There's brief male full-frontal nudity, as well as partial nudity, kissing, suggestions of sex, and strong sex talk. Characters drink socially and alone, a character smokes cigars, and characters take unknown pills and hallucinogenic drugs at a party (a "drug trip" is shown). An Asian character is very giving and helpful but is also portrayed in a way that veers close to stereotype. Even though the movie is from acclaimed director Alexander Payne, it's too long, not very funny, extremely preachy, and awfully downbeat.The film is directed by Alexander Payne, North American director very attached to the genre of tragicomedy of great draft. He usually uses comedy and a sense of humor to make ironic and socio-cultural critiques. Some recurrent themes in his films are relationships, adultery, family and old age. He began his career shooting short films. The first one was "Carmen" (1991) and several years later he filmed an episode of "Inside Out" (1991), an erotic video project produced by Playboy that he repeated with "Inside Out III" (1992). In this period he filmed a low-budget black comedy entitled "The Passion Of Martin" (1991). Payne managed to draw the attention of the critics of his country with Citizen Ruth (1996), a satirical comedy starring Laura Dern. Later, he acquired international resonance by Election (1999), another satirical film starring Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon, for which he received a nomination for the Oscar awards for carrying out the script and won the Independent Spirit Awards in the best category director, in addition to many other awards and multiple nominations. Three years later he directed About Schmidt (2002) for which he won a Golden Globe for Best Screenplay. Jack Nicholson and Kathy Bates, protagonists of the film, were both nominated for the Oscars for their performances. His next work was Sideways (2004), a film about the wine environment starring Paul Giamatti with which Payne won his first Oscar in the best script category. Two years later, he wrote and directed the "14e arrondissement" segment, the film Paris, je t'aime (2006), which also debuted as an actor, playing Oscar Wilde in the "Pere-Lachaise" segment, led by Wes Craven. After this work, he directed the pilot episode of the television series "Hung" (2009). His next work was the dramatic comedy The Descendants (2011) starring George Clooney and Shailene Woodley. The movie tells the story of a businessman trying to revive ties with his daughters on a car trip through Hawaii. The film had excellent reviews and a great acceptance at the box office. After this project led Nebraska (2013), a road movie that tells the story of a father with symptoms of dementia should meet with a son who has moved away to claim a prize that has touched them in the lottery. The film won up to six nominations to the Oscars, including the best film and best director plus a lot of awards and nominations are different film festivals.
WHAT'S THE STORY? In DOWNSIZING, a Norwegian scientist invents a way to shrink people down to just about 5 inches tall, thereby offering a way to lower humanity's strain on Earth's resources. Meanwhile, struggling physical therapist Paul Safranek (Matt Damon) is having trouble paying his bills. After meeting an old friend (Jason Sudeikis) who's gone through the shrinking procedure and learning that his money would go a lot further if he, too, were small, Paul and his wife, Audrey (Kristen Wiig), sign up for the program. But Audrey balks at the last second, leaving Paul alone in the tiny community called Leisure Land Estates. Paul soon meets playboy Dusan Mirkovic (Christoph Waltz), as well as Dusan's maid, illegal Vietnamese immigrant Ngoc Lan Tran (Hong Chau), and finds a connection with them. Soon he embarks on an adventure to the end of the Earth, meeting the original scientists and learning a terrible truth about the planet we live on.
MOVIE INFO Rating: R (for language including sexual references, some graphic nudity and drug use) Genre: Comedy, Drama Directed By: Alexander Payne Written By: Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor In theaters: December 22, 2017 Runtime: 135 minutes Music: Rolfe Kent Studio: Paramount Pictures Cast: Matt Damon, Kristen Wiig, Christoph Waltz, Alec Baldwin, Neil Patrick Harris, Laura Dern, Jason Sudeikis, Margo Martindale, Kerri Kenney, Maribeth Monroe, Niecy Nash, Rune Temte
Source: CommonSenseMedia