Honey I Shrunk The Damon.
135 Mins. Starring: Matt Damon, Kristen Wiig, Hong Chau, Jason Sudeikis, James Van Der Beek, Neil Patrick Harris, Laura Dern, Udo Kier & Christophe Waltz. Director: Alexander Payne.
Everything's getting smaller these days. Your cameras, your phones...the chances of your day sticking around if you stay glued to them all through. And now after his not so 'Pleasantville' trip to 'Suburbicon', Clooney 'Descendant' Matt Damon's whole world goes 'Sideways' as Alexander Payne takes one of Hollywood's biggest stars and reduces him to the size of one of Moranis' kids. This movie micromanaging is 'Downsizing' right here. And you know if they can Paul Rudd shrink a goat then the Hollywood men who want you staring at cinema screens will milk this concept for all it's worth. Turning Damon and Kristen Wiig to the suburban equivalent of Marvel superheroes 'Ant-Man and The Wasp', this scaled down production is an almost if we really saw it we still wouldn't believe it Philip K. Dick future fable of the marriage of humanity and technology and the overriding, nuanced elements of man vs machine that looks to divorce us from the modern and make tradition our first love mistress. Reducing ourselves to one-third of our size and living in a Polly Pocket community would reduce waste and our environmental footprint, but what about the depth it would tread in our pockets? You take a reduction and your bonus is exactly that. Your money stretches longer and you live like kings if you believe the crumbs the man talking to you sitting on your cookie box is offering. Want a mansion? Make yourself at home! The finest threads? So long as you don't mind an extra, extra small. The coolest car? Well...I'm afraid this is a solar powered environmentally friendly bubble you're living in after all. And don't even think about that bottle of vodka. Well now we've sized all that up are you big enough to go small? Let's go further down the rabbit hole.
'Leisureland's' latest inhabitant Matt Damon isn't even half the man he used to be. But in 'Downsizing' he hasn't gone this bald and bold with his identity since his body of work showed it had the metal of the sci-fi hit 'Elysium'. The former and still Jason 'Bourne' actor may have switched trading hands for a comfortable sweater and slacks but once movies most marketable actor can still lead a smaller crowd to the big stage. His characters even against all the rising and falling odds of their flaws and forlorn factors are still funny, forthright and once more these things with feeling. And here there's no change to the psychology of this man despite the physical. Although he does handle all the problems with turning into a human insect (buying your lady a bunch of flowers this valentines would certainly be one petal) like no shrinking violet. And in catching the complexity of irreversibly changing (or reducing) your life for better or worse he tugs on more than our heart strings, whilst tickling our funny bones with the biggest feather in the marrow of some of this movies lighter moments going against the grain of the hiding in illumination darkness of this leisure center for those who want a bugs life. I mean have you ever seen the 'Good Will' of this Boston boy when he's had a few brews? You'll like those apples. Getting to the core of Alexander Payne's pain and love piece we see something that ignorance can't hide behind the idyllic, just like George Clooney's 'Descendant' trouble in a Hawaiian paradise. A lifestyle piece that asks us more than, "is less more"? Especially when something that we appear to be doing for the good of humanity is more like a selfish pursuit of happiness that still has purity, but is distilled like that said bottle of vodka. As the 'About Schmidt' and 'Nebraska' director makes a mark we can all drink too.
An all-star who's who of Academy actors all sign up for this 'Downsizing' project. There's the 'Bridesmaid' funny turned 'Walter Mitty' offbeat serious Kristen Wiig...who will really need one here shaving her head so she doesn't wake up from the shrinking process looking like Cousin It. But she really rises to the occasion here. Just like scene stealer in hilarious and heartwarming equal measure Hong Chau. A star of the future and the here and now previously seen in the weird and wonderful, hallucinogenic trip of Joker to be Joaquin Phoenix's 'Inherent Vice'. The rest of the big screen, little people consist of some of today's biggest stars in some smaller than cameo roles you may forget about tomorrow there's so many of them. There's the hilarious Jason Sudeikis convincing us all to come down to his level via a Christmas cracker megaphone. Or how about another hilarious player Neil Patrick Harris showing off his doll house and how he met 'Jurassic Park' and 'Star Wars' star Laura Dern and got her to bathe in diamonds and pearls? Even James Van Der Beek is here to show us 'Dawsons Creek' was a long time ago even if that meme wasn't. But there's nothing like a pair of ageing, European playboys. And after starring in over 200 films, good German Udo Kier gives us the one here. Whilst a great one of Tarantino 'Django' and 'Inglorious' fame Christophe Waltz seems to be having the time of his life here in little land, letting his hair down and grow long. And there's nothing reassuringly funnier to wake up to then his morning after grin. There's so much at play here from hilarious visual gags for the magnify glass eye to see, to some social satire for the haves and the have nots put under the microscope. Sure you might get short with this big pictures reach by the end, but 'Downsizing' isn't just an opportunity for some CGI experimental fun. It's also the chance to effect change not in a scientific way, but a social one that shows there's more to life than living large if it leaves you with no room to grow. There's something much bigger going on here...if only we could see it. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Further Filming: 'Suburbicon', 'Ant-Man', 'The Incredible Shrinking Man'.
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