'Downsizing': A Tone-Deaf, Less-Than-Incredible Shrinking Satire
People reduce themselves to the size of peanuts in search of a better life in Downsizing, and an entire colony's waste can fit inside one plastic bag. But the new sci-fi comedy from writer-director Alexander Payne is a gigantic mess at any proportion. It's the rare movie that seems to execute every part of its concept absolutely wrong; a narrative, tonal, visual and sociopolitical fiasco the likes of which haven't been seen in many moons.
Fittingly for a piece of entertainment that means well but misfires at every turn, the film's star, Matt Damon, has been embroiled in his own series of blunders on the publicity tour, stemming from his comments about Hollywood's sexual assault crisis. Damon probably wishes he could just shrink himself to nothing and disappear forever inside
