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A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Friday 22 december 2017
In a shrinking Hollywood,

Payne aims big in ‘Downsizing’

By JAKE COYLE — adults, you could call gered by the entrance
AP Film Writer them. In a shrinking Hol- of Ngoc Lan Tran (Hong
TORONTO (AP) — There lywood, “Downsizing” is a Chau), a heavily accented
are rituals to an Alexander clever inversion of scale: a Vietnamese dissident who
Payne production. Movie high-concept, large-can- was miniaturized against
nights on Wednesdays vas science-fiction from a her will.
during pre-production at filmmaker who specializes “It’s a character that we
Payne’s house, with pizza in the lives of profoundly don’t often see and it’s a
and soft drinks. Friday-night ordinary schlubs. character most filmmakers
screenings during post-pro- In “Downsizing,” miniatur- would not be interested
In this Dec. 18, 2017 file photo, Alexander Payne, the director duction with martinis. And, ization not only lessens hu- in or just not know where
and co-writer of “Downsizing,” arrives at a special screening of reliably, an endless strug- man impact on an over- to begin to know how to
the film in Los Angeles. gle to secure financing. crowded, overpopulated do the character quote-
Associated Press “Only one studio guy said Earth, it also gives people unquote correctly,” says
what I needed him to the opportunity for grand- Chau. “I appreciate that
say, which was: ‘I know it er lives. “Get small, live like Alexander and Jim Taylor
doesn’t make sense on pa- kings” is among the selling had the cojones to write
per. We’re making it any- points for Leisure Land, one this character.”
way,’” Payne says of his lat- of the “small” communi- Though some have ques-
est, “Downsizing.” ‘’Those ties that pops up, and just tioned the strong accent,
are the words on which my one of the myriad ways the Chau’s performance —
career has hung.” world-changing invention both comically prickly
At a cost of $68 million, is quickly capitalized upon. and tenderly sweet — is
“Downsizing” is double the “Plus ca change, plus c’est easily among the best
budget of any previous film la meme chose,” says of the year. (She’s nomi-
by Payne. He originally in- Payne with a melancholy nated for a Screen Actors
tended the film, in which Midwestern twang. (It’s Guild Award and a Gold-
scientists have invented usually translated as “the en Globe.) She steals the
the ability to shrink people more things change, the movie, raising its trajectory.
to 5 inches tall, to be his more they stay the same.”) “I’m very happy to play
follow-up to his Oscar-win- It begins with a Nebras- a character who is spe-
ning 2004 film, “Sideways.” kan couple (Matt Damon, cifically Asian, who is up
“But it was not be,” Payne Kristen Wiig) who, saddled against very real obstacles
sighs. Years seeking studio with mortgage payments, in an environment that
backing followed, even as decide to undergo the feels very familiar and re-
Payne made other things process. alistic to what people are
(“The Descendants,” ‘’Ne- But the film will surprise actually experiencing right
braska”). He calls “Down- many moviegoers by just now,” says Chau.
sizing” his Vietnam, a label how far it travels from its “For people who have a
his writing partner, Jim Tay- initial premise. Going from problem that I’m speaking
lor, modifies. “Except we the Omaha plains to Nor- with an accent or whatev-
won,” he says, chuckling. wegian fjords, “Downsiz- er, my question is always:
For a director who has ing” wanders a near-fu- ‘Did she seem intelligent
always made modest, ture, looking for meaning to you?’ And the answer
human-sized comedies in a dying, upside-down is always yes, so I’m like:
— many of them set in his world. ‘What’s the problem?’”
hometown of Omaha, “Ultimately,” says Payne, Payne is himself a mix of
Nebraska — it’s especially “we’re just interested in sardonic and romantic.
fitting that Payne’s most people, not so much in He’ll accept the praise that
ambitious film yet is about plot.” his “Paris, je t’aime” short is
people turning small. He is, Taylor, who has worked his finest work, but only be-
almost certainly, the only with Payne since their 1996 cause it’s 6 minutes long.
director who would spend feature debut, the abor- “You can get on with your
millions making special ef- tion-rights satire “Citizen life,” he says. He’s a precise
fects appear mundane. Ruth,” says the two con- and perceptive cinephile
“I wanted the visual effects sciously try to find less pre- with an expert Robert Ryan
in this one to be so notice- dictable directions. impression and a strong
able as to be banal,” he “We think, ‘Well, the obvi- devotion to Milos Foreman
said in an interview over ous way is to go this way, films, but he frequently
coffee shortly after the but maybe that’s just our chafes at the extreme at-
film’s premiere at the To- movie-memory working,” tention Hollywood movie-
ronto International Film Fes- says Taylor. “Heroism for making brings.
tival. “I mean, I’m just trying us is more about getting “The movies will never die,”
to make a regular movie. through the day than sav- Payne says. “But I think
I’m not trying to make a vi- ing humanity, even though they’re too expensive to
sual effects movie.” there are people literally make and that’s a drag, at
“Downsizing,” which Para- trying to save humanity in least in the U.S. I wouldn’t
mount Pictures will release our movie.” mind, and in fact I will, seek
Friday, is the rarest thing in The existential journey of to make movies in other
today’s movie industry: a Damon’s character in countries just to get away
big movie for big people “Downsizing” is partly trig- from the pressure.”q