Small People Have Big Problems in New “Downsizing” Trailer

By Kip Mooney • On • In Trailer Trailer 0

Alexander Payne has been one of the most consistent writer-directors of the last 20 years. Though most of his films have been modestly budgeted, they've attracted some of the biggest stars, including George Clooney, Reese Witherspoon and Jack Nicholson.

But Downsizing represents his biggest splash yet. With his largest budget to date, and starring Academy Award winners like Matt Damon and Christoph Waltz, it's a little bit of a detour as his dramedy gets a sci-fi bent.

In the not-too-distant future, Damon and Kristen Wiig play a couple stuck in the rat race, frustrated with their meager existence. After some friends take the plunge, they agree to be "downsized," a procedure that shrinks them, but lets them live in a high-end community they could have never afforded in the full-sized world.

But this trailer reveals more of the tiny world, and how even the shrunken inhabitants have the same problems with substance abuse and inequality. Still, I trust in Payne and his writing partner Jim Taylor to find the humor in these all-too-human problems.

Downsizing opens on Friday, December 22.

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About Kip Mooney

Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.

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