Downsizing

"Oscar winner Alexander Payne’s eco-comedy has a great sci-fi concept that provokes immediate thoughts about waste management, the current state of climate change, and the human race’s own (in)ability to change. The first half hour of Downsizing does a sterling job building this near-future world where shrinking the population is not only possible, it’s beneficial to the environment AND your bank account. After that, however, the story becomes more and more like Matt Damon’s character – confused and aimless."

"The most whimsically outlandish film of Payne's career, though that doesn't mean it's made with anything less than his usual highly thought-out and controlled master-craftsman bravura."

"Goes soft and strangely condescending on us, coming within perilous distance of white-saviour tradition as Damon becomes the change he'd like to see in the new world."

"Lost up its own minuscule navel, Downsizing is a film that gets around to a toothless variation on "size doesn't matter," but Payne ought to know that's the most boring idea imaginable, big or small."

"A sci-fi comedy satire that purports to be about environmentalism and the end of the American consumer dream, but is actually about something much more intimate, and simultaneously more expansive."

"What a spry, nuanced, winningly digressive movie this is."

"The film meanders rather than drives to a conclusion – a loose parody of a doomsday drama I guess – before ending on an uncertain note of redemption."

"Captivating, funny and possessed of a surprise-filled zig-zag structure that makes it impossible to anticipate where it's headed, this is a deeply humane film that, like the best Hollywood classics, feels both entirely of its moment and timeless."

"...interesting, but a missed opportunity for something grander."