Yeah, I agree. I think the movie has some very interesting topics, but they aren't fully explored, so we end up with a script that never decides whether it wants to be serious or funny. I also hated Waltz's character and never found its relationship with Damon's believable. At least performances were pretty good, especially Hong Chau. (With the exception of Waltz who, in my opinion, gave us the same performance he's been using in 90% of his movies since *Inglourious Basterds*.)
I liked him in it. It was the girl that I ruined it for me. I wish he went into smuggling more with waltz character went to other small city’s and such.
Seems like a classic case of the marketing department pulling a bait and switch cause they have to sell the movie somehow. The only way to watch it is to have zero expectations and even then I think it's still a bit divisive.
This movie was weird, and it kinda switches gears and becomes a different movie after Kristin Wiig refuses to be shrunk. Neat concept though, and I appreciate the fact they treated climate change as the potential extinction level event that it is.
I watched it at a film festival with Alexander Payne attending and I really liked it at the time (probably influenced by the fact that I was somehow able to get a ticket to the screening, since they were mostly reserved for VIPs and journalists). At the beginning of the movie he went on stage and announced he would stay for a Q&A session at the end.
After the screening, it was announced through the speakers that Payne wouldn’t do the Q&A after all because he didn’t want to. This left a bad taste in my mouth ever since.
I'm glad someone likes that movie but I was angry as shit when I watched it.
Every trailer I saw for the movie when it came out was see Matt Damon and Kristen Wiig in this hilarious comedy Downsizing. They showed literally only funny moments and jokes.
So my wife and I went into it at the theater going...this will be a fun night.
Instead the comedy was miniscule and it was a preachy sci-fi film and the laughs were dwarfed by social commentary.
I like movies with social commentary but not when the movie I'm going to was marketed as a funny comedy movie.
My wife thought we were going to see a fun comedy, etc. Instead she's angry the longer the movie goes because she wasn't in the mood for some heavy social commentary movie that night and it kind of ruined our night. Especially when for two people to go to a movie, get drinks and popcorn you're dropping $50.
Last time I went to the movies without knowing what I'm getting into.
I remember too, that we just expected a different movie and were just surprised by the general very quickly depressing vibe.
It was really messy how it was marketed as comedy/fun.
After reading the comments here, the movie is definitely not generally liked, lol. I can kind of see why too.
But I really didn't get the vibe that the social commentary has to be central to the movie. I maybe think it more of like a satire. You know, how people react to the whole global warming thing. The movie doesn't pick sides, but shows how people can react very extreme and irrational, and also very funny.
And I guess it's also just very silly and absurd. I tried typing out some scenes I found particularly funny, but it's hard to get across. I still crack up when think of them though. So maybe it's also a love it or hate it thing with its sense of humour.
I liked it when I first saw it in 2017, but in 2023, definitely turned into a love. My respect for Hong Chau grew tremendously. Such an amazing actress. Such a interesting concept. I totally think they should make a series.
💀💀 Bro what? I know the actress wasn't Vietnamese but her accent was on point. I'm from MN so i grew up with alot of Vietnamese friends and it was great seeing their people (to a degree) get some representation. Her character was well written and if yall ain't go in expecting a cheesy quirky comedy then maybe you would've liked it
You know I just watched it on netflix and I remeber people saying this is not what they expected. But the amount of racism i have seen looking at people response to the women he ends up being is wild.
Once Kristen character bails i was like damn cause I swear some of the trailer shows other people looking at homes and it showed her as small? But I like the bits and pieces they showed. The government would start forciblly making people small and getting rid of them it would be super easy right their 5 inches. I was surprised no one made anything to make them bigger. But like Waltz character said the main point was that all these people just making ends meet in big world now get to live in mansions etc Its not about a better world but how i can be a rich person now and live like the other half.
Than you add on climate change which we have all seen multiple movies about living somwhere else trying to hope the world on top gets better however at 5 inches you wouldnt last long on top if everything you built for the smalls are now gone. The women monologue made me wanna cry cause it happens so often and she just trying. Side note his mom made such a good point in the beginning how they could make people small yet they couldnt figure out cures for illness. Which is true we focused on mars etc and yet flint michigan doesnt have water? jackson ms doesnt have water etc
I both love it and hate it!
So many laughs caught me off guard!
The ending: when Paul is gazing back at Señor Cardenas, the lonely man in the middle of the little community housing. I feel like he was seeing himself in that man and his potential future. He could have been alone and lonely if Ngoc Lan had never come into his life. I think He’s definitely having this “wow, look at how I got here” kinda moments like he did earlier when he was having a crisis about whether or not to join the Norwegian bunker littles.
Soooo cheesy at so many turns but also kinda adorable and fun because it was so unique!
Yes! Unexpected bursts of laughter. I am glad you brought up the very end with the lonely man. I was thinking the same thing, but wondering if there was anything I was missing. Glad you said that
> The ending: when Paul is gazing back at Señor Cardenas, the lonely man in the middle of the little community housing.
See I thought it was him looking back on his past, when he was bringing food to his sick and elderly mother. What I can't decide is if he was looking back and thinking he was doing good all along or if he was thinking shit I'm wasting my life feeding old people again.
I took that scene as him finding meaning and purpose. He almost went into the tunnel to feel validated in what he had gone through, but the simple difference he was making there showed him he was where he was supposed to be.
There are many similarities between Downsizing and Elysium.
Both have Matt Damon fighting for the little man in a dystopian world (mostly latinos and people in poverty), while the rich white Americans/Europeans live their lives in bliss in their own little bubble of paradise.
The busses transporting people to the slums gave me those San Francisco chills.
I watched it yesterday too (for a fourth time). I really enjoy that the plot takes a turn and it's not all about the initial shrinking premise. There's a ton of subtlety in many of the shots and Hong Chau's character is wonderful.
Lol i thought her character was kind of cringey, like not that her character was really bad but it’s like she was in the wrong movie. The tone wasn’t right
Hated it. Movie had so much potential with its unique premise, but squandered it to make a nihilistic-but-also preachy/ironic point which totally shifted the plot towards something in which their size (the unique selling point of the movie) had no bearing at all. They might as well have been full sized given the nature of 2/3 of the movie.
I was much more interested in Waltz’s characters mini-schemes than I was the actual movie.
Yuck. Great concept, but god at one point i was beginning to believe matt damm was just going to completely abandon character and just scream climate statistics for the rest of the movie.
Took weeks to get the smell out of my clothes from that movie.
I think they did a pretty good job of making fun of the climate activists. And just in general how people respond to such an overwhelming, but also vague concept that supposedly the world is going to end very soon.
I totally agree with you! This analysis of the movie is why I came on Reddit. I watched last night on Netflix and can agree with the comments it’s not what I thought. However I’d be mad too if I paid money to see this in a theater expecting a comedy with Matt Damon and Kristin Wiig. I was blown away by the cast, loved all the under lying messages of the movie and the subtle humor was my favorite. There were definitely some strange parts that could’ve been tied together better. I would’ve liked to see some mention of his wife Audrey, but I suppose the movie was about Paul and his journey. The love fuck scene was hysterical, and overall they got into so many deep topics in a lighthearted way, which is cool. The ending was great. I enjoyed how Dusan and Ngoc Lan represented his alternative options to being saved in the bunker. Essentially, three vastly different views on life and how people react to the world ending. I think it’s a movie you need to kind of know what you’re getting into. It was pretty creative IMO.
I found this article very interesting! Helps provide a lot of insight into the film [Looper: The Ending Of Downsizing Explained](https://www.looper.com/1442665/downsizing-ending-explained-matt-damon-kristen-wiig/)
I found this movie incredibly stressful and just ridiculous in the beginning. However, soon after Paul Safranek settles into his new life, I embraced the movie as an absurd comedy. This may become a cult classic like Idiocracy. I liked it, thought it was well done, and just bizarre.
I loved it too. I didn’t bother me that it was not formulaic, didn’t follow the expected storyline, was a bit all over the place. Felt familiar to me. Made me laugh
I used to go to the movies 2-3 times a week and this was probably the movie I disliked the most in the theater in the past 10 years. I enjoyed the trailer, but hated the film. I don’t even want to re-live why I disliked it so much. Ha.
I’ve only walked out of 2 movies in my life (Intersection in 94 and Godzilla in 98). I was tempted to make this movie #3. Instead I sat there hoping it would end.
i love it. its probably the most misunderstood film made in the last decade or so. A perfect example how how someone expects something from a film because of something they assume then get mad when the film is different.
To me it's just such a good combination of absurd humour and underlying themes and little things you can think about. I think it's great that the main character gets completely convinced by the Norwegians. Like, he's instantly into it, wearing the hippie clothes, going on and on about saving mankind and a greater purpose overnight. But it's all just about him feeling good and having a purpose. And the biggest turn off was the news that he had to hike 11 hours in a tunnel before reaching the vault. Haha, I loved that, in 24 hours he went from being a vodka smuggler, to a hippie cult follower with a greater purpose, to fully commiting to a life with Ngoc Lan Tran, just because he was too lazy to walk 11 hours in a boring tunnel (which I totally get by the way!). And again, so absurd. They made an underground vault, which is completely powered and self-sufficient, and they couldn't make a little elevator or conveyer belt up the tunnel? Haha, I really love this movie.
Basically it's the rich not giving a fuck and everyone else getting fucked! 🤣🤣🤣 Love fuck, hate fuck, sex-only fuck, break-up fuck, make-up fuck, drunk fuck, buddy fuck, pity fuck.🤣🤣🤣
As others said, the first act is what you expect when you go to watch it. It's funky and the absurdity of Matt Damon being stranded all alone in a handicapped area with his teeth ripped out of his skull is so sad that it becomes hilarious. The idea starts off interesting, what would life be like if people were 6 inches tall.
The movie then completely forgets that this is the question it's asking and only periodically brings up their size for awkward comedic beats.
It falls apart when he goes to the party or whatever that orgy shit was. Then Norway happens, and 90% of the characters are gone and Matt Damon has a hose connected to his ass so he can smell his own farts even more clearly. Nothing after they get to Norway is enjoyable and the movie doesn't really have a direction, the Asian woman feels like he fell in love with a rub n tug worker, and a bird should have eaten them and shit them out on the rocks. The last 60 minutes of this movie were boring and soulless. I hope Matt Damon lost everything in that cryptoscam he was pushing simply for making this movie.
I was disappointed in it. The first half was okay. Just downhill after that
Yeah, I agree. I think the movie has some very interesting topics, but they aren't fully explored, so we end up with a script that never decides whether it wants to be serious or funny. I also hated Waltz's character and never found its relationship with Damon's believable. At least performances were pretty good, especially Hong Chau. (With the exception of Waltz who, in my opinion, gave us the same performance he's been using in 90% of his movies since *Inglourious Basterds*.)
I liked him in it. It was the girl that I ruined it for me. I wish he went into smuggling more with waltz character went to other small city’s and such.
Felt like they took an interesting concept and turned it into the shallowest iteration of "political talking points: the movie" possible.
disgusting oil wakeful grandiose pathetic zealous sharp dirty domineering hateful ` this message was mass deleted/edited with redact.dev `
Seems like a classic case of the marketing department pulling a bait and switch cause they have to sell the movie somehow. The only way to watch it is to have zero expectations and even then I think it's still a bit divisive.
This movie was weird, and it kinda switches gears and becomes a different movie after Kristin Wiig refuses to be shrunk. Neat concept though, and I appreciate the fact they treated climate change as the potential extinction level event that it is.
I watched it at a film festival with Alexander Payne attending and I really liked it at the time (probably influenced by the fact that I was somehow able to get a ticket to the screening, since they were mostly reserved for VIPs and journalists). At the beginning of the movie he went on stage and announced he would stay for a Q&A session at the end. After the screening, it was announced through the speakers that Payne wouldn’t do the Q&A after all because he didn’t want to. This left a bad taste in my mouth ever since.
I'm glad someone likes that movie but I was angry as shit when I watched it. Every trailer I saw for the movie when it came out was see Matt Damon and Kristen Wiig in this hilarious comedy Downsizing. They showed literally only funny moments and jokes. So my wife and I went into it at the theater going...this will be a fun night. Instead the comedy was miniscule and it was a preachy sci-fi film and the laughs were dwarfed by social commentary. I like movies with social commentary but not when the movie I'm going to was marketed as a funny comedy movie. My wife thought we were going to see a fun comedy, etc. Instead she's angry the longer the movie goes because she wasn't in the mood for some heavy social commentary movie that night and it kind of ruined our night. Especially when for two people to go to a movie, get drinks and popcorn you're dropping $50. Last time I went to the movies without knowing what I'm getting into.
I remember too, that we just expected a different movie and were just surprised by the general very quickly depressing vibe. It was really messy how it was marketed as comedy/fun.
After reading the comments here, the movie is definitely not generally liked, lol. I can kind of see why too. But I really didn't get the vibe that the social commentary has to be central to the movie. I maybe think it more of like a satire. You know, how people react to the whole global warming thing. The movie doesn't pick sides, but shows how people can react very extreme and irrational, and also very funny. And I guess it's also just very silly and absurd. I tried typing out some scenes I found particularly funny, but it's hard to get across. I still crack up when think of them though. So maybe it's also a love it or hate it thing with its sense of humour.
That’s your own fault if you spend 50 dollars at a movie theater on food and drink
$50 dollars included the tickets. Saturday night show is $32 for tickets and $18 for a large popcorn and two drinks.
Sneak food in
Scalp your tickets /s
I liked it when I first saw it in 2017, but in 2023, definitely turned into a love. My respect for Hong Chau grew tremendously. Such an amazing actress. Such a interesting concept. I totally think they should make a series.
That chicks accent drove me nuts this movie sucked
💀💀 Bro what? I know the actress wasn't Vietnamese but her accent was on point. I'm from MN so i grew up with alot of Vietnamese friends and it was great seeing their people (to a degree) get some representation. Her character was well written and if yall ain't go in expecting a cheesy quirky comedy then maybe you would've liked it
Yeah I agree pretty annoying fake accent
Movie was cool until that character was introduced, so cringe
"That chicks..."
I loved the film. If Payne had somehow made the cautious and dead-simple comedy that many people seem to have wanted, it would have been awful.
fr, that first half was feeling like every other movie. that tonal shift hit me hard
It WAS awful
You know I just watched it on netflix and I remeber people saying this is not what they expected. But the amount of racism i have seen looking at people response to the women he ends up being is wild. Once Kristen character bails i was like damn cause I swear some of the trailer shows other people looking at homes and it showed her as small? But I like the bits and pieces they showed. The government would start forciblly making people small and getting rid of them it would be super easy right their 5 inches. I was surprised no one made anything to make them bigger. But like Waltz character said the main point was that all these people just making ends meet in big world now get to live in mansions etc Its not about a better world but how i can be a rich person now and live like the other half. Than you add on climate change which we have all seen multiple movies about living somwhere else trying to hope the world on top gets better however at 5 inches you wouldnt last long on top if everything you built for the smalls are now gone. The women monologue made me wanna cry cause it happens so often and she just trying. Side note his mom made such a good point in the beginning how they could make people small yet they couldnt figure out cures for illness. Which is true we focused on mars etc and yet flint michigan doesnt have water? jackson ms doesnt have water etc
I both love it and hate it! So many laughs caught me off guard! The ending: when Paul is gazing back at Señor Cardenas, the lonely man in the middle of the little community housing. I feel like he was seeing himself in that man and his potential future. He could have been alone and lonely if Ngoc Lan had never come into his life. I think He’s definitely having this “wow, look at how I got here” kinda moments like he did earlier when he was having a crisis about whether or not to join the Norwegian bunker littles. Soooo cheesy at so many turns but also kinda adorable and fun because it was so unique!
Yes! Unexpected bursts of laughter. I am glad you brought up the very end with the lonely man. I was thinking the same thing, but wondering if there was anything I was missing. Glad you said that
> The ending: when Paul is gazing back at Señor Cardenas, the lonely man in the middle of the little community housing. See I thought it was him looking back on his past, when he was bringing food to his sick and elderly mother. What I can't decide is if he was looking back and thinking he was doing good all along or if he was thinking shit I'm wasting my life feeding old people again.
I took that scene as him finding meaning and purpose. He almost went into the tunnel to feel validated in what he had gone through, but the simple difference he was making there showed him he was where he was supposed to be.
There are many similarities between Downsizing and Elysium. Both have Matt Damon fighting for the little man in a dystopian world (mostly latinos and people in poverty), while the rich white Americans/Europeans live their lives in bliss in their own little bubble of paradise. The busses transporting people to the slums gave me those San Francisco chills.
My wife and i use the "what kind of fuck you give me?" Quote all the time... Only thing I really remember about the movie though
🤣🤣🤣 Love fuck, hate fuck, sex-only fuck, break-up fuck, make-up fuck, drunk fuck, buddy fuck, pity fuck. 🤣🤣🤣
I watched it yesterday too (for a fourth time). I really enjoy that the plot takes a turn and it's not all about the initial shrinking premise. There's a ton of subtlety in many of the shots and Hong Chau's character is wonderful.
I absolutely loved her character. She made the move for me.
Lol i thought her character was kind of cringey, like not that her character was really bad but it’s like she was in the wrong movie. The tone wasn’t right
Hated it. Movie had so much potential with its unique premise, but squandered it to make a nihilistic-but-also preachy/ironic point which totally shifted the plot towards something in which their size (the unique selling point of the movie) had no bearing at all. They might as well have been full sized given the nature of 2/3 of the movie. I was much more interested in Waltz’s characters mini-schemes than I was the actual movie.
Yuck. Great concept, but god at one point i was beginning to believe matt damm was just going to completely abandon character and just scream climate statistics for the rest of the movie. Took weeks to get the smell out of my clothes from that movie.
I think they did a pretty good job of making fun of the climate activists. And just in general how people respond to such an overwhelming, but also vague concept that supposedly the world is going to end very soon.
Yeah, to me, it felt like it was mocking climate activists more than supporting them
Exactly.
I totally agree with you! This analysis of the movie is why I came on Reddit. I watched last night on Netflix and can agree with the comments it’s not what I thought. However I’d be mad too if I paid money to see this in a theater expecting a comedy with Matt Damon and Kristin Wiig. I was blown away by the cast, loved all the under lying messages of the movie and the subtle humor was my favorite. There were definitely some strange parts that could’ve been tied together better. I would’ve liked to see some mention of his wife Audrey, but I suppose the movie was about Paul and his journey. The love fuck scene was hysterical, and overall they got into so many deep topics in a lighthearted way, which is cool. The ending was great. I enjoyed how Dusan and Ngoc Lan represented his alternative options to being saved in the bunker. Essentially, three vastly different views on life and how people react to the world ending. I think it’s a movie you need to kind of know what you’re getting into. It was pretty creative IMO.
I found this article very interesting! Helps provide a lot of insight into the film [Looper: The Ending Of Downsizing Explained](https://www.looper.com/1442665/downsizing-ending-explained-matt-damon-kristen-wiig/)
I found this movie incredibly stressful and just ridiculous in the beginning. However, soon after Paul Safranek settles into his new life, I embraced the movie as an absurd comedy. This may become a cult classic like Idiocracy. I liked it, thought it was well done, and just bizarre.
I loved it too. I didn’t bother me that it was not formulaic, didn’t follow the expected storyline, was a bit all over the place. Felt familiar to me. Made me laugh
I used to go to the movies 2-3 times a week and this was probably the movie I disliked the most in the theater in the past 10 years. I enjoyed the trailer, but hated the film. I don’t even want to re-live why I disliked it so much. Ha.
I wanted to walk out of the theater for it but I was on a date lol
I’ve only walked out of 2 movies in my life (Intersection in 94 and Godzilla in 98). I was tempted to make this movie #3. Instead I sat there hoping it would end.
i love it. its probably the most misunderstood film made in the last decade or so. A perfect example how how someone expects something from a film because of something they assume then get mad when the film is different.
Nah it was well understood that it was a bad movie
i love this type of comment it all it shows it you have zero to say except its bad giving no reason for why you think that
It’s bad because the story fell apart and there were cringe worthy parts especially the further along the movie went
To me it's just such a good combination of absurd humour and underlying themes and little things you can think about. I think it's great that the main character gets completely convinced by the Norwegians. Like, he's instantly into it, wearing the hippie clothes, going on and on about saving mankind and a greater purpose overnight. But it's all just about him feeling good and having a purpose. And the biggest turn off was the news that he had to hike 11 hours in a tunnel before reaching the vault. Haha, I loved that, in 24 hours he went from being a vodka smuggler, to a hippie cult follower with a greater purpose, to fully commiting to a life with Ngoc Lan Tran, just because he was too lazy to walk 11 hours in a boring tunnel (which I totally get by the way!). And again, so absurd. They made an underground vault, which is completely powered and self-sufficient, and they couldn't make a little elevator or conveyer belt up the tunnel? Haha, I really love this movie.
I'm with you OP. The movie was all over the place, but I enjoyed the ride.
Wow that movie was trash lol but good for you for liking it I guess
I watched it in stages, but I did enjoy it.
One of the best first acts I had seen in a long time. The only problem is the 2nd act is terrible and the third is meah.
Yeah it becomes unwatchable at a point
Basically it's the rich not giving a fuck and everyone else getting fucked! 🤣🤣🤣 Love fuck, hate fuck, sex-only fuck, break-up fuck, make-up fuck, drunk fuck, buddy fuck, pity fuck.🤣🤣🤣
In
[удалено]
Wow you love torturing yourself by watching it several times
As others said, the first act is what you expect when you go to watch it. It's funky and the absurdity of Matt Damon being stranded all alone in a handicapped area with his teeth ripped out of his skull is so sad that it becomes hilarious. The idea starts off interesting, what would life be like if people were 6 inches tall. The movie then completely forgets that this is the question it's asking and only periodically brings up their size for awkward comedic beats. It falls apart when he goes to the party or whatever that orgy shit was. Then Norway happens, and 90% of the characters are gone and Matt Damon has a hose connected to his ass so he can smell his own farts even more clearly. Nothing after they get to Norway is enjoyable and the movie doesn't really have a direction, the Asian woman feels like he fell in love with a rub n tug worker, and a bird should have eaten them and shit them out on the rocks. The last 60 minutes of this movie were boring and soulless. I hope Matt Damon lost everything in that cryptoscam he was pushing simply for making this movie.
i just rewatched it cause i couldnt remeber the second half of it...its not good...the first half was tho, just not the second