Downsizing

Biggest disappointment of 2017. Such a brilliant concept with so many interesting avenues it could have pursued. Instead, Alexander Payne produces a discombobulated, inaccessible, and boring film that has no idea what it is supposed to be. Love story? With such romantic lines as “What kind of fuck did you give me?”… No. Satire? If it was, it’s eccentricity overshadowed any semblance of humor or irony. Environmental call to action? Almost there, but insisted on mocking the movement with phony liberal guilt and doomsday cult behavior. Elaborate science fiction? Never gave that one a chance to blossom. So much potential squandered on a lacking script that relied on a phoned-in performance from Matt Damon and a Mr. Yunioshi-style, pidgin English moral center. Hong Chau deserved better. The concept deserved better. We all deserved better.