Alexander Payne
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Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989)
Directed by Joe Johnston
influenced Downsizing (2017)
Themes Visuals Plot
This is no The Incredible Shrinking Man or even Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, films which took this concept to a much more realized degree.
…similar to Honey, I Shrunk the Kids in the visual presentation…
There is a tiny bit of Swift here – or The Incredible Shrinking Man, or Ant-Man, or Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.
They seem to be aiming for something Charlie Kaufman-esque, but can’t even match Fantastic Voyage, or Innerspace… or Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.
It’s not to sit back and simply have fun with the concept, his own personal Honey I Shrunk the Kids.
“Downsizing” will perplex viewers who approach it as though it were something along the lines of “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” for grown-ups.
…good, though not as remarkable as in the 1957 little person classic, “The Incredible Shrinking Man.”
From Attack of the 50-Foot Woman to The Incredible Shrinking Man, we can’t get enough of this concept.
There is a tiny bit of Swift here – or The Incredible Shrinking Man, or Ant-Man, or Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.
This is no The Incredible Shrinking Man or even Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, films which took this concept to a much more realized degree.
By way of such classics as “The Incredible Shrinking Man” (1957), the less well known 1940 mini-classic “Dr. Cyclops” and the Lilliputian episodes of Jonathan Swift’s 18th century masterpiece “Gulliver’s Travels,” “Downsizing” makes a serious attempt to be a “Gulliver’s Travels” for these times, a fantasy/science-fiction film with a Swiftian sense of purpose and political/social satire, and it works best on this level.
There’s something touching at the heart of this movie, just as there was in the thoughtful 50s sci-fi classic The Incredible Shrinking Man, which is that if we could stop thinking that we’re big in the universe, we might appreciate what has meaning within our cosmic insignificance.
…the shanty town that Paul is amazed to find beyond a hole in the security wall of his Truman-Show parody of leisure-class America.
It’s like being in The Truman Show without the 24/7 surveillance.
In a way, “Downsizing” performs a sleight of hand similar to that of “The Truman Show” in that you come for the high-concept sci-fi, but stay for the characters.
It’s like a Marxist spin on The Truman Show, where the set decorations fall away and reveal the capitalist machinery behind every quick-fix’s false promises.
As medium-grade satire (hardly another 'The Truman Show')…
It’s one of those infernal ideas that Hollywood occasionally mistakes for brilliant even though it always becomes tiring (like Groundhog Day, The Truman Show, Her, and the granddaddy of conceptual tedium, John Frankenheimer’s Seconds).
As “The Holdovers” morphs from miserablist odd-couple comedy to bittersweet road movie, it aims to remind you, sometimes with a hard nudge, of Hal Ashby classics like “Harold and Maude” and “The Last Detail”; an argument with a waitress automatically nods to Bob Rafelson’s “Five Easy Pieces.”
Evoking the cinematographic proclivities of 1970s filmmakers (the influential likes of Hal Ashby’s Harold and Maude and Robert Altman’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller pervade the fuzzy, 35mm cinematography), Payne reverberates the eras’ ambiance via faraway zooms, sentimental Labi Siffre and Cat Stevens’ needle drops, rustic prep-school environs, and darkly-lit oaken hallways.
Featuring spiky intergenerational negotiations and intelligent repartee all-round , The Holdovers is often reminiscent of the best parts of Peter Weir's 1989 heart-breaking coming of age drama Dead Poets Society.
If you were expecting Robin Williams’s Mr. Keating, from Dead Poets Society, a harlequin who inspires his students with poetry and benevolence, you walked into the wrong classroom.
…if you want to watch a fun shrinking comedy, I would go watch “Ant-Man” or even that “Rick & Morty” episode entitled “The Ricks Must Be Crazy,”…
“Ant-Man was a lot more fun”…
There is a tiny bit of Swift here – or The Incredible Shrinking Man, or Ant-Man, or Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.
…it gives you the hope that one day Payne might direct Ant-Man 9.
…this story destined to be a scathing satire (sort of High Rise meets Ant-Man)…
…there are a few good Ant Man-style gags about the difference between normal objects and minuscule ones…
Up in the Air (2009)
Directed by Jason Reitman
influenced by About Schmidt (2002), Election (1999), Citizen Ruth (1996), Sideways (2004)
Themes Plot
That "Election" reference leads to another observation, and that is the many parallels between "Up in the Air" and "Election's" writer/director Alexander Payne's "About Schmidt."
A scenario reminiscent of Alexander Payne's About Schmidt, it's as glib and false as Bingham's spiel to stunned, newly canned ex-employees.
So he set his aim higher, wanting to make a film with the kind of complex, seriocomic humanity he admired in Billy Wilder, Hal Ashby, James L. Brooks, and the contemporary director he most reveres, Alexander Payne ( Sideways , About Schmidt , Election ).
Rolfe Kent (ah, the Alexander Payne connection!—for his scores on Sideways, About Schmidt, Election, and Citizen Ruth) does a masterfully complimentary score, with additional songs picked by music supervisor Randall Poster including Crosby, Stills & Nash and Charles Atlas.
So he set his aim higher, wanting to make a film with the kind of complex, seriocomic humanity he admired in Billy Wilder, Hal Ashby, James L. Brooks, and the contemporary director he most reveres, Alexander Payne ( Sideways , About Schmidt , Election ).
In particular, Anna Kendrick, who charmed in "Camp," enters a pantheon of smart young indie actresses with a breakout resembling Reese Witherspoon's in "Election."
Five Easy Pieces (1970)
Directed by Bob Rafelson
influenced The Holdovers (2023), Sideways (2004)
Themes
As “The Holdovers” morphs from miserablist odd-couple comedy to bittersweet road movie, it aims to remind you, sometimes with a hard nudge, of Hal Ashby classics like “Harold and Maude” and “The Last Detail”; an argument with a waitress automatically nods to Bob Rafelson's “Five Easy Pieces.”
There are very few films in this day and age that both harkens back to the tradition of “Five Easy Pieces” exploring characters with no real future or anything to look forward to, and searching for one, while exploring the incredulously distressing and often futile machinations in the artistic experience of an author.
As “The Holdovers” morphs from miserablist odd-couple comedy to bittersweet road movie, it aims to remind you, sometimes with a hard nudge, of Hal Ashby classics like “Harold and Maude” and “The Last Detail”; an argument with a waitress automatically nods to Bob Rafelson's “Five Easy Pieces.”
After review, The Hunt harks to the Alexander Payne film, Citizen Ruth.
It can’t touch the Clinton-era satires The Last Supper (1995) or Citizen Ruth (1996), which succeeded for reasons other than being on “the correct side.”
They seem to be aiming for something Charlie Kaufman-esque, but can’t even match Fantastic Voyage, or Innerspace… or Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.
…after an early lab sequence that plays like a dorky update of 1966's 'Fantastic Voyage'…
In “Fantastic Voyage” (1966), a submarine crew is shrunk all the way down to microscopic size so they can be injected into a prominent scientist’s bloodstream and attempt to repair the damage to his brain.
Paul’s Fantastic Voyage may seems miles away from Payne’s previous efforts, but Downsizing regards its characters and their alienation with the same compassionate eye as its predecessors…
And there's such spark mixed with pain in Sessa's young Dustin Hoffman-esque turn (a comparison reinforced when Paul and Angus hit the cinema to see western Little Big Man, which stars Hoffman, and by The Holdovers overall harking back to The Graduate times).
In fact, Payne and cinematographer Eigil Bryld might cringe at this, but the snowy Barton campus even evokes a little bit of 1970’s “Love Story” (in the best way possible).
And there's such spark mixed with pain in Sessa's young Dustin Hoffman-esque turn (a comparison reinforced when Paul and Angus hit the cinema to see western Little Big Man, which stars Hoffman, and by The Holdovers overall harking back to The Graduate times).
I am reminded of Election (1999), a high-school comedy that mocked the values that Booksmart , for all its girl-centric appeal, does nothing to challenge.
Inside Booksmart ’s Type-A protagonist Molly (Beanie Feldstein) beats the savage heart of Election ’s Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon), while her dreamy, sensitive best friend Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) isn’t so far from Aldys (Leelee Sobieski), the tender weirdo from Never Been Kissed .
In a movie year in which the most talked-about films have also been the most inclusive—Get Out, The Big Sick, Wonder Woman, Lady Bird…
Are liberals like the characters in a better movie like “Get Out” and “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” who profess their love of everybody, black, white or polka dot, but who are as phony as our present U.S. cabinet?
…with bristling wit and urgency in a film like Get Out…
The script feels reminiscent of any number of millennial adolescent dramedies; think of films like Jeffrey Blitz’s Rocket Science – to pull one randomly from the corners of memory – that matter most to those who saw them at just the right age.
At times it recalls Spike Jonze’s Being John Malkovich in its straight-faced evocation of a world hauled down a rabbit hole.
…an atmosphere that hints to both Pleasantville and Being John Malkovich…
Downsizing never comes even close to becoming the consistently brilliant, bizarre and provocative Being John Malkovich.
I was reminded of the new-chance-of-life eeriness of John Frankenheimer's Seconds and the futility of buying yourself a meaningful existence.
…and the granddaddy of conceptual tedium, John Frankenheimer’s Seconds…
There are hints of undisputable inspiration in Gomez-Rejon's approachWes Anderson's " Rushmore " and Alexander Payne's " Election " come immediately to mind while watchingbut the filmmaker uses them merely as a jumping-off point for his own uniquely perceptive viewpoint.Greg Gaines (Thomas Mann) is a die-hard cinephile and aspiring director whose 42 home-made films (most of them affectionate movie spoofs) adorn his family's living-room shelves.