Director Alexander Payne has always been hit or miss for me. I like certain works more than I do others, I find certain premises more appealing than I do some, but this is with most things in life. The difference with Payne is the fact each of his works seem to have this throughline of similar themes to them which mainly consist of men his age, or whatever age he was at the time of writing the screenplay, dealing with certain things men of his age tend to deal with. There is nothing particularly wrong with this-write what you know, after all-but with his latest titled Downsizing it seems the writer and filmmaker was looking for a way of doing something different with the themes he wanted to explore and likely re-visit in some capacity. Payne is the guy who brought us Election and About Schmidt as well as the guy who crafted Sideways, The Descendants and Nebraska. Point being, he can tell very human tales while also having a knack for exaggerations of certain types. And so, it seems in many ways that Payne is trying to get back to some of the more artistic licenses he took with his characters and their scenarios in his early days rather than telling simple, but grounded tales that are purely true to the human spirit. Payne still hopes to scratch at something human yet intangible, but he also wants to convey this in a fun and interesting way. Enter the premise of Downsizing where a kindly occupational therapist undergoes a new procedure to be shrunken to four inches tall so that he and his wife can help save the planet and afford a nice lifestyle at the same time. It's clear from this first full trailer that Payne and co-writer Jim Taylor (who last worked with Payne on Sideways) have a lot on their minds and much they'd like to discuss and it will be interesting to see how Payne, a typically small-scale filmmaker, handles what looks to easily be his biggest film to date, but more I'm curious to see what point of view Payne and Taylor have come at things from as far as the human race and the environmental and economical imprint we're leaving on this planet. And while reactions out of the festival circuit have been mixed at best I'm anxious to see what this picture ultimately amounts to. Downsizing stars Matt Damon, Kristen Wiig, Christoph Waltz, Hong Chau, Laura Dern, Jason Sudeikis, Neil Patrick Harris, James Van Der Beek and opens on December 22nd, 2017.
Synopsis: 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.
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