Downsizing Review

This review was written after a screening on day 9 of my London Film Festival experience, which included 25 films and a Curzon preview of The Square, and you can read the rest of my coverage on my Tumblr. Keep in mind this premiered on Friday the 13th.

Downsizing was a nightmarish experience. The couple in front kept stretching their arms out and lighting up their phones, the bloke next to me guffawed like someone who’s just discovered comedy for the first time, and because of the supposedly limited availability of the Circle, we get to suffer down here in the Stalls watching each other take piss breaks every two fucking minutes because there’s a bog in each corner of the room. And it didn’t help that I was one of the few not laughing at this overlong, overindulgent and horribly meddled excuse for satire from a director I once had confidence in (even when he was an asshole).

A 135-minute-long comedy that could very well have been the first six episodes of a sci-fi sitcom ala The Last Man on Earth, which Kristen Wiig was killer in during her limited presence, Downsizing is the kind of film that boasts “Look at me, I’m so intelligent! Overpopulation! You’re all gonna die someday!” but tries too hard to live up to its promise, never making use of the time it has to build on the relations between its two worlds after three slightly amusing time skips and getting so lost in its fantasy concept that it loses immersion by the dozen. When I first heard of this film I imagined it wouldn’t be nearly as invested in CG or any other Hollywood stain as this. Good lord almighty, was I wrong.

To construct its social satire it dabbles in stereotypes which are practically embodied in poor Hong Chau’s misdirected character performance, that is supposed to convey a complimentary message on immigration but what she spouts is a gobsmackingly outdated combination of Engrish and a hamfisted Vietnamese accent. Now, this is not played for a joke like what Paramount could tolerate in 1961 or 2009 and she committed her character with self-awareness, yet despite the accent she must be a sympathetic character, right? I guess? As an immigrant without children forced into a position by an overbearing government, I can’t see why she wouldn’t resonate, but the smugness and blatancy of Payne’s satire, the poor man’s Idiocracy if you will, outweigh her character’s potential and this specific trait distracts from what matters most about her. Chau comments on the matter:

“All of these people who have this vague feeling that they have a problem with this character, they have no problem going and getting a mani-pedi from some cheap nail salon, they have no problem buying mass-produced clothes from child workers in Bangladesh, they have no problem with a bunch of other stuff, but they have a problem with my character, who is so multifaceted and complex and well-written — they have a problem with her because she has an accent.”

I call bullshit on this movie’s twisted ego. Since her character is more distractingly annoying than she should be, this does not excuse anything. Why not just drop the English? It would make the chemistry between her and Matt Damon a ton more poignant. Chau, I hate to say this, but you deserve better.

Small person jokes and all, it’s not even funny most of the time Matt Damon spends as a tiny person away from Kristen Wiig whose future is uncertain but definitely should have been explored to some extent. Not even Christoph Waltz can redeem it. I can’t believe this was built by Alexander Payne, because it feels like nothing more than a stock director’s stereotype of the Charlie Kaufmans of our time. 2017’s most cynical and misguided execution of an undoubtedly intriguing sci-fi concept for humanist satire since Netflix’s The Discovery, and the worst film I have seen in all seven years I’ve attended this festival. I wish I didn’t type more about Hong Chau than anything else in this review, I wish I could look past that quibble and appreciate her character for who she really is, but this is what’s wrong with the white man’s Oscar cinema in 2017. Honey, this shrunk my temper.