Downsizing Review:
First let me tell you about the the score this movie got from Rotten Tomatoes.
The audience score is lower, than the critic’s score. When I saw the trailer, I understood that audience reaction. I thought to myself, “this is going to be a comedy with Matt Damon Kristen Wiig and Jason Sudeikis. And this “comedy” is going to take place in a different world where everything is small, and the comedy will be slightly different, and maybe there will be some bugs and ants grasshoppers from Honey I Shrunk the Kids.
These were my thoughts going in to see the movie, because of the audience score and the trailer. I couldn’t have been more wrong. This movie is not a comedy. It is 100% social commentary, about multiple things. About what we’re doing to our planet, about the people who live on the margins of society, and how we ignore such people. This movie is anything, but a comedy. I read some audience comments and reviews online. It seems to me that a lot of people thought that they were going to see a comedy and then were turned off at the social messaging. They should have marketed the movie differently.
I loved this movie. I absolutely loved it. I don’t want to give too much away, if you plan on seeing the movie, but the plot goes like this: Scientists discover a way to shrink humans. Lots of humans decide to shrink themselves because they’ll leave a smaller carbon footprint on the planet. But another perk of being small is that you can live a much better lifestyle as a small person than in the real world. If you have a $150,000 in the bank, that translates to a $12 million lifestyle in the small world. So a lot of people who’re having difficulty with their lives in the real world choose to shrink themselves for the better lifestyle. So the small world is sold as a utopia. Until you discover, that even here in this world, there are people who clean your house and they don’t live where you live, and their lives are hidden from you.
Another point of contention from the audience, and critics alike, is that the part played by Hong Chau, absolutely brilliantly, of a Vietnamese dissident, was considered racist. The character has an over the top Vietnamese accent, and a lot of people objected to it. It’s total, absolute and utter rubbish. Hong Chau is Vietnamese and plays an immigrant with a strong accent. So what? Her character is brilliant. I don’t want to say too much about her, because she is the hidden gem in this movie. Her character is the main reason I liked this movie. And people are going crazy about how the movie was making fun of her accent. These people are bloody stupid. I loved watching a Vietnamese female lead. It was great. And these people are complaining. It is ridiculously annoying.
I’m going to give this movie an 8.5. I absolutely recommend that you watch this movie. This movie is not a comedy. It is a movie that comments on society. The movie isn’t perfect. What movie is? The only bad thing about the movie is that the setup takes too long. Other than that, it does for me what a movie is supposed to do. It surprises me in the direction the story takes, and the nature of the characters in the movie. You may think somebody is one way, and then you find that they’re different from what you expected, and in a surprising way.
I 100% recommend that you watch this movie. 8.5 out of 10. That’s my score. I really want to give this movie a 9, but 1/2 a point off for the long setup at the beginning of the mvoie.
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