Oscar Watch: 'Downsizing'

Downsizing is a film where the script and the performances could never beat the concept. There is only about two hours of time to tell a story in a movie but Downsizing makes you want talk about the concept being reality. I wanted to hear more about the economic aspect and the social aspect of creating a community of rich people.

That didn’t happen. Those things only get passive mentions.

Matt Damon was good in the film, but there were better performances, including the love interest, and its creative direction was better. I couldn't get beyond wanting to talk about the concept with my wife more than finishing the movie.

It would be a huge thing (pun intended) if we were able to shrink the population. The economy would shrink for the people that stayed big. We would be in danger of losing our apex predator status if a bunch of mosquitos or birds could come down at any time and eat us. Shrinking can be used as a weapon or crazy method of coercion. There are just so many paths to go down with the concept it’s difficult to get engaged into the story. Especially when it's a generic coming of age story.

I should strike the concept from the record and just consider the film on its own. There is only a limited amount of time to tell a story. Even so, there were social aspects of Downsizing that would have been more interesting to explore.

A potential downsizer liquidates all his property and then becomes the equivalent to a millionaire in his tiny community.

What kind of society would that be? A society of people who don’t want to work? Those questions are asked but the answers are brushed off. It is what it is. And if people don’t work what do you do about healthcare? When you get sick how many downsized doctors will there be if they became super rich when they made that decision? Wouldn’t it be cheaper to downsize the poor and subsidize them for a fraction of the cost? What socials issues does that create?

All of those questions are bigger than Matt Damon. He is the star but he is overshadowed by performances from two other actors. Dusan played by Christoph Waltz and Ngoc Lan Tran played by Hong Chau were the highlight performances of the film. Christoph Waltz is an incredible actor and someone who always brings the films he is in to a new level, even when he’s in a supporting role. It’s too bad we discovered him so late in the United States.

I had never heard of Hong Chau but she was brilliant in her role. Her character was somewhere between unique and troublesome, as a lot of the comedy that came from her character was due to her thick accent, enough that I understand why ScreenCrush called her character an “icky, racist caricature.” I would have preferred the thick accent on its own without some of the comedy behind it, but there also has to be place for characters with accents like Ngoc Lan Tran.

I am not an Asian American that gets pigeonholed as a certain thing or class in our society. I will listen and be guided by that community. Nonetheless, Hong Chau still played a great role and I’ll be excited to see her in other roles, sans the accent in the future.

The film and the concept were enjoyable. I dreamt about being shrunk the night I watched Downsizing and even though the film was at times uneven, it was still enjoyable.

Matt Damon's character didn’t change at all. He was doing his best to do the right thing at the beginning, middle and end of the film. It’s the first time in a while I’ve seen the main character in a film stay so static.

Verdict: Watch the movie for the concept and some of the interesting subplots.