It’s easy to describe most of Alexander Payne’s filmography
as “white dudes learn an important lesson: the movie.” And to that end, his
latest, Downsizing, feels right at home among titles like
Election and Nebraska. Where it stands
out is that it finds the director splashing around in the science fiction pool for
the first time. The film bears an intriguing satiric premise, tips its hat to
all manner of interesting thematic concerns related to that conceit, and begins
with promise, only to shit the bed in complete, spectacular, baffling fashion.
